Sofia the First - Teenage Version - Cedric's Route
by Natnarf01
Summary: Sofia wasn't able to choose any of her friends or classmates to be her partner at Royal Prep, and she was told to get a relative of any of her royal servants to be her partner. She decides to ask Cedric for help when an accident happens in the Sorcerer's Workshop. Not to mention the chaos amongst the other young growing royals...Oh Boy...Will everything be alright?...
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: **Sofia The First Belongs to Disney._

_Comments From the Author:_

The moment of tension...I, Natnarf, proudly presents... Cedric's Route!

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I know some of you readers may hate me already...But I did say that I was going to start off with 'Cedric's route' first! 'Cause that's what I've been working on since the very beginning...and I still haven't finished him yet...

Once I do finish his side of the story and when the votes on my poll has finally gathered enough numbers to start off another side series, then I'll move on and start getting bashed and hated for not other series...UGH!... I don't even know what I'm trying to type here!

Another reason why I wanted release Cedric's side first, is because I wanted to show everyone first how my brain works and how my stories usually run and end up...I don't want other people's expectations to be/get ruined just because I won't be able to meet them...if you understand what I mean...

Anyways...I'm still not sure how many chapters will there be since I'm still in the middle of it all...the PRESSURE!...so If you'd like to see a different pairing after Ced-Fia...please vote your choice of pairing found on my profile page...if you do not have a FanFiction account...you can leave your choice in my Twitter...Deviant Art...Blogger...or on my Youtube Account...I will be accepting these votes until the end of September this year...Yes...You've got a lot of time to get your friends or acquaintances (who likes and knows the STF series that is) to vote for your next favorite pairing for me to write...the highest votes will be the next pairing series for me to write after Ced-Fia...Remember..._VOTE VOTE VOTE_!

Here's a list of my social accounts...

Youtube: Natnarf1 (With a Cedric picture)

Deviant Art : Natnarf

Blogger: Natnarf1

Ello: natnarf

Twitter: NatNarf01

Well...I won't keep you guys any longer...

Remember...My next Preview of the next chapter or part will be posted in my Deviant Art and Blogger, on the 11th of every month...

Happy reading everyone! Enjoy!~

Until then...

_This is Natnarf..._

_Signing Off!~_

* * *

_Sofia's POV_

Just as I had made up my decision, my body had frozen on the spot. I couldn't move nor feel any part of my body, even my own voice had betrayed me as I helplessly stood and watched the other princesses get partnered with all of the princes in the room. James gets pulled on the arm by Amber, Hugo bows politely in front of Clio, Desmond lends out his arm to Vivian, Khalid and Maya cheerfully link arms, Jin went right away and hid behind Jun, Frederick and Mae are in a conversation where the world wouldn't bare to break their peaceful moment together, Zandar was trying to charm Hildegard with his usual charms and stories, and the other three princes were trying to get acquainted with the Arsinoe, Matillda and Penelope

When everyone has finally picked their male partners, my body was finally let loose and I felt a cold breeze brushed pass against my forearms. I tried to see where that cold air could've come from, but I didn't see anything that could've emoted that, nor were any of the doors and windows in the classroom open.

"Alright everyone." Ms. Fauna says. "Those of you who does not have a partner please come over here to me."

Seeing that I was already standing I went up to the blackboard and stood by Ms. Fauna. I was surprised to see that Leena coming towards the stage. I never knew that we really were short on boys in this room.

"Excellent. No more or less." Ms. Fauna says looking back and forth at us and the others. "The rest of you with your paired partners may discuss your themed dresses or clothing."

Everyone wasted no time and started chattering away.

"As for you two." Ms. Fauna faces Leena and I as we draw closer to her. "You both will have to find your own partners who is roughly around your age, just as long it is someone who is one of your staff around your household. Understand?"

"Yes, Ms. Fauna." Both Leena and I answered simultaneously.

"The dress code rule still applies to you both, so please remember that." Ms. Fauna waves her hand to dismiss us.

I let Leena go ahead, and I see her go towards the side of my desk. I quickly went to my desk and pulled out my chair to offer her to sit in it.

"It's alright, Sofia. I just wanted to have a standing conversation, like normal people would, if that's alright with you." She said to me.

"Sure." I said as I pushed my chair back into my desk. "So, are you alright not getting to be with any of our classmate princes?"

"Yes. I chose not to be any of them, I even expected my sister and brother to paired up together since they're are closer to each other than I am with them." Her head gestured towards Maya and Khalid. "Although I was surprised that you didn't get to partner with anyone at all."

"Really?"

"Of course. Being the most active princess among us girls, at least one prince would've been bounded to have tried to evade us other princesses and save his space opened for you, since you're practically one of the boys."

I only let out a small laugh in reply. I couldn't tell her that my body was possessed in the process of trying to go to a prince, that would just indicate that I was a coward and tried to avoid the princes, probably would make me look like that I was allergic to them.

"So who do you plan on bringing?" She asked me.

"Oh." I was suddenly brought to realization. "That's a very good question. Most of our youngest staffs are at least in their 30s. I'll have to ask Baileywick about everyone and their age."

"Well, I think I might ask one of our servants' if they have any younger relatives, if they have any at all. At least this way I could ask them about how their relatives thinks of us as their boss, or if they have any views about our kingdom and if they can think of any ideas to improve our country."

"That's...actually not a bad idea, Leena." I put my hands together.

"It is the only one I could think of at the moment. Too bad there's no actual wish or magic spell that could turn one of our most trusted staff a little younger, or they could temporary make a young person appear out of thin air, like a Cinderella-spell." Leena puts her hands together close to her heart. "I better start brain storming on which of our servants do have out-of-the-palace-relatives." She curtsies and leaves my desk to go back to hers.

Just then my brain clicked, along with the idea of having a person being created out of thin air. Since I don't stand out too much, I could probably ask Mr. Cedric to cast out a one-night person as a dance partner for me. That way I wouldn't feel left out at all. No one's going to want to have anything to do with a guest who isn't of royalty.

"Alright everyone. The school's over for the day. You may all continue your discussions on your own." Ms. Fauna waves her wand over herself and shrinks in size while leaving the classroom.

I tidy up my desk and summoned out my suspending box. Since I won't have a permanent desk from now on as an Advance...let's just shorten it to 'A.G.C.', 'Advance Girls Course' for short, so I took out all of my other remaining school things into my box from my desk. It would be hard to replace everything again if I had lost any of my school materials.

"Sofia."

I turned to see that it was Amber, whose arm was still tugging onto a depressed-looking James.

"You and Leena were left out. Did you both not have a partner?" She asked.

"Yeah. We both have to find one of our staffs or their relatives to be our partners." I said with a smile. "At least you both won't have any problems, you practically have many matching outfits that you both could go off in."

"I'd rather be partnered with my pet baboon than Amber." James mumbled. "I'm sure we'll spend hours tonight just choosing and picking clothes, and probably a few more on shoes alone."

"You know me best. I never go to a party without properly dressing up to impress the audience." She flaps open her fan with the free hand, professionally. "Let's get going. Every second counts you know."

I tried to stay on Amber's free side, just to avoid any awkwardness that might erupt between James and I while going back home.

* * *

_Cedric's POV_

I placed in the final touch of adding the jar filled with the contents of Dragon's Breath, while holding a ready-to-close-lid on the other hand. Dragon's breath can easily escape through small gaps and cracks, so loosing even a bit of the breath would minimize its effect on the Fireworks Potion.

"Swap!"

I instantly make the change as I slid the lid smoothly onto the caldron. I had hammered the brim on both the caldron and the lid right down flat, I could almost take up on being a blacksmith if fate would let me take up on it for a try. I grabbed my four large wooden clamps and clamped the caldron and lid evenly in spacing in four spots.

"A few more seconds and it's done." I rub my hands together excitedly.

It basically takes just thirty seconds, but I don't like taking on chances, so I plan on waiting for five additional seconds. I decided to quickly sort out the clutter on my workbench while I wait for the potion to finish when I heard a 'Clink' sound to my right. I turned to see that it was a potion in a corked chemical bottle almost tipping over the edge. I quickly grabbed a hold it before it fell off the edge.

"Phew. That would've been a terrible disaster. " I wiped off a small drop of newly formed sweat on my forehead.

The blue hue colored potion in the corked bottle was my thirteenth ever successful Age Potion. Just like the Aging spell I had cast on Prince James that had turned him into a 2-year-old baby, the potion has almost the same effect, except it has a time limit, and the amount needed to be used is based on the person's age current age. If a man is in the age of twenty years and wanted to temporally be a ten year old, he would drink half the potion, and he would be a ten year old in an instant along with memory recollection. If he was thirty years of age and wanted to be twenty, he would need to drink only a third of the potion, both would have the same results and would last for 12 hours. One would really need a measuring cup to use this, an little bit of mathematical knowledge.

I placed the potion on the top of the highest book shelf above my workbench, and very quickly I finished clearing up the clutter and grabbed a clean and empty potion bottle from the rack for holding up potion bottles. I went over to the cauldron and quickly removed the clamps and set all four of them aside from the cauldron. Using on side of the bottle, I dip the tip of it and slowly scooped until an eighth of the bottle is filled and firmly corked the bottle in place. A perfectly violet colored liquid with misty swirls.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Just in time.

"Come in." I said aloud.

The door opened and Princess Sofia comes in though the doors while holding a thick purple fabric in one arm. That's probably her horse riding clothes.

"Hello, Mr. Cedric." She says cheerfully as always.

"Princess Sofia, you came in just at the right time." I said as I showed her the bottle in my hand. "Here's the Fireworks Potion I promised you."

On the spot she summoned her storage box, as she opened the lid I went over and placed the potion into the box. I also wanted to check to see what things she's stored inside, and it is quite a lot, apparently, in perfect arrangement, leaving me a good amount of space to set down the bottle.

"I've never seen a student with so many...uh...material." I was trying to find some good words, which I failed to do so.

"We were all arranged into our new class settings, and so I had to get everything out of my previous desk so that no one would take any of my things." She said as she summons away her storage box.

"Oh. Did you leave any memories behind by any chance?" I asked.

"Memories?" She had a confused look.

"Whenever us sorcerer students leave their desk behind for the next batch of new sorcerers, we would leave some sort memory behind so that if we would ever visit the school we would find our 'marked' desk and be able to reminisce on our school life, trying to carve a name into the table, or a special coded message." My smile instantly turned around. "But I never did have any great memories back then."

"Oh. I never think there was such a thing. I tried to keep my desk as clean and tidy as I possible can, that I never got it to make a crack, not even a small dent." She placed her hand on the side of her tilted face.

"Maybe the smells from the cleaning chemicals might've stained into the table." I chuckled a bit. "Are you going to go about your rounds again today?" I pointed at the fabric in her hand.

"Oh. This. This isn't my horse riding clothes." She says while putting her wand back into a bracelet. "This is for you."

"For me?" I said as she hands my the thick material. "May I have a look at it now, Princess?"

"Sure. Open it."

I carefully unravel the material, which was a little heavier than I first thought. To my surprise I thought that the coat was already set right, but it was folded originally inside-out. I think this was the Princess's way of protecting the coat's design. I carefully reverse the coat, and when I finally set the coat right, my mind was literally blown away. The whole fabric's base was of the same color as my current purple robe, apart from the edges of the robe's sleeves and collar, everything else had been filled with golden thread in a design that almost looks like a tribal symbol or tattoo, in a pattern that even Madame Collette wouldn't dare to try on her own.

"I wanted to thank you for all of your hard work that you've done for me lately, and decided to make this for you as soon as I got home...uh...one and a half hours ago." She said, confirmed.

"You?! You finished making this whole thing from scratch?! Today?!" My lids went wide as the size of my own eyeballs, maybe even more.

"Yup." She said.

I tried to put on my robe, lapping the left on top of the right. Princess Sofia went over to my back and handed me what seemed like the two ends of a gold sash, which I didn't see earlier.

"I had stitched the middle part of the sash onto the back of the robe. At least the sash won't get lost or separated, much or less get stolen." She says.

I took hold of the two ends and tied two knots. You could tell that this was made from real gold as the color doesn't come off from the belt, any fake golden fabrics or clothing materials would have golden dusts or flakes coming off from the fabric, or leave any golden dusts on your hands after touching it. To think she would consider giving me something like this, is unusually odd, yet very likely of her to do so.

I took out my wand, the Elder wand, upon which I had inherited from my father almost a decade ago, and conjured a full body length mirror. My lips went and spread on their own as wide as it could go when I laid my eyes on myself in the reflection, for not even a whole dictionary book could express how much I really like the robe. It doesn't feel heavy as it looks, and it makes me feel...taller, bolder, and prouder even.

"I look...really good." Words had slipped out of my mouth, but I didn't care.

"Glad you liked it." She said.

I twirled around one last time before I started untying the knot on my golden belt.

"What are you doing?" She asked. "Are you taking it off?"

"I want to keep this clean and unsoiled." I said. "I still have a lot of cleaning up to do before I'm done for the day, then I could proudly wear the robe for the rest of the day."

"Ah. That makes sense" She said.

I went behind my dark red curtains by the staircase that goes down to a basement, and hung it up on a spare coat rack that was just standing by. I have been given sweaters and other simple clothing materials as gifts by the other castle servants, but this was the only clothing present that I have been given that is worthy for a pair of sore eyes like my mine. Handmade, pure golden fabric and thread, and made by a member of the Royal family. I am not about to spoil it with any bad chemicals or magic crystals.

I walked back to where the Princess is and the workbench that I had finished cleaning.

"Is there anything else you want me to make or create for the villages for you?" I asked just in case.

"Well, I do have one request." She said. "But it's not for the villages."

"Oh?"

"It's kind of...difficult, to say, uh, per se."

"What is it exactly?" I raised a brow as I went to grab the cauldron filled with leftovers from the Fireworks Potion.

"I..I need you to create for me...a person."

"WHAT?!" I let go of the cauldron just as I had a firm hold of it. It's a good thing I wasn't carrying it already or I would've dropped it.

"I need a partner to go with me tomorrow, for the school's Ball-Dance, and I have to bring someone who is around my age to the dance." She said.

I turned around and placed both hands on my waist, with a stern look.

"You want me to create a 'Human' partner for you, to a school dance?! Do you have any idea who I am?!"

"You're Enchancia's great Sorcerer." She said.

"Uh...Yes. Yes, I am." I smiled for a moment, but shook my head and looked at her. "But that's not what I meant." I almost got carried away with that flattery. "I am a Sorcerer! Not a Necromancer! Or something relating to that. I do not create 'Human' beings out of potions and spells, and as far as my skills can get me, I could only create wooden puppets for Puppet Theaters."

"I know." She says. "But you're the only one who I can think of, being such a famous sorcerer and all, I thought that maybe you could help me come up with a solution to my problem."

I resumed to the cauldron and carried it while talking to the Princess as I make my way to my main working table, but I laid the cauldron on the workbench as it was a little too heavy for my untrained arms.

"Princess Sofia, bribery could only get you somewhere, but not to the point where I could just conjure up a person out of thin air. And why can't you just your friends from the village? I'm sure there are some young men there whom you are friends with."

"I'm not allowed to have anyone else outside of our own castle, it has to be someone related to one of our castle staffs." She said with a sad expression.

"Hmm...well...I could- OUCH!"

I had forgotten about the large wound in my right hand just as I was tightening my fist to make into a pointer. I held onto my wrist just to ease the pain from stinging throughout my whole arm while leaning my back against the workbench.

"Mr. Cedric?" Princess Sofia was about to come closer, but I held up my left hand to stop her.

"Don't! The wound shouldn't be touched by any skin contact. Just stay where you are." I said as I took in another deep breath. "I'll be alright. Just don't come any closer."

"Mr. Cedric...please..." I could hear her pleading, but at least she was staying put.

I took a few more deep breaths before standing up straight. I took off belt from my robe and wrapped around my hand many times, but as I got to the ends of the belt I couldn't tie the ends together. I almost jerked when I felt a pair of hands taking the ends of my belt from my hands and tied them together for me. I couldn't reject the help this time since I really needed it. When she finished she tried to get a good look at me in my eyes, probably checking to see if I was injured anywhere else apart from my hand, but it was so hard to look straight at her as my eyes kept moving back and forward.

"...P-Princess Sofia..."

"Are you alright now?" She asked softly.

I only nodded.

I felt her hands let go of my hand and hear her shoes clicking back three steps altogether. I looked up to see her face and it was at its most saddest expression that would make one feel truly sorry for, even for someone like me. I didn't know what to do, I just reached out my good arm and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"...Princess..." It was the only word I could mutter as I gave a weak smile.

She smiled then, instantly working its powers to making all of my pain in arm go down the drain. That, is what I believe the power of her smile does, whether she has the amulet or not.

"CEDRIC!"

The door slams open and James runs in shouting out my name. I could hear the bottles and flasks around the room clinking together from the vibrations of the door working its waves around to me. It wasn't slowing down anytime and it was almost reaching the workbench. With my hand still on the Princess's shoulders, I used a good force and pushed her out of the way just as the cauldron falls to the floor and creates a lot of smoke all around.

"James!" I heard the Princess yelling out. "You went and slammed the door too hard again!"

"Wasn't my fault!" He shouted back. "I couldn't control the strength in my own arms! Where are you anyway?"

"I'm trying to look for Mr. Cedric! He's somewhere near the workbench-"

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER, PRINCESS!" I shouted back. "J-JUST LEAVE THE ROOM AND CLOSE THE DOOR! IF ANY OF THE SMOKE GOES OUTSIDE IT'LL BE A WHOLE LOT WORSE THAN THIS!"

"BUT MR. CEDRIC-"

Just then I heard a glass break somewhere nearby, if there were many shards and the Princess were to step on them, who knows what the King will do to me.

"JUST DO AS I SAY! DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM!" I lied. "JUST COME BACK AFTER YOU'RE DONE WITH DINNER!"

I strained my ears as far as I could and heard the door close just as I could no longer hold my breath. Then I heard someone calling out my name, but I no longer had the conscience to recognize whose voice it was. I was then being lifted up by the arm and walked away from my spot. No sooner the smoke started to die out, and bit by bit the room was starting to get clearer again. When I could finally see the highlights on my furniture, I turned to see a person standing by the opened window. I slowly made out who it was and I started smiling as they attempted closing the window.

"...M-Mommy?..." It was like learning how to talk all over again. "...I-Is that...you...Mommy?..." And my ears were still ringing.

Just as I spoke, she turned to face me, with an expression I didn't expect her to show. She was probably upset with my performance just now. She came over to me, expression unchanged. I was expecting her to pinch on my face or start holding me around my waist, but she held onto my face with both hands, as if examining me.

"Goodwyn." she said. "I'm not seeing this wrongly, am I?"

I felt myself being slowly assisted down into a chair, and the grip around my arms left me. I looked up and saw my father, Goodwyn the Great, in front of me, with the same expression mother had on his face as he examined me as well.

"Is that really you, Cedric?" He finally spoke.

"Of course it's me." I said while my ears were still ringing. "Why are you both...looking at me like that- Uh!" I tried to hold my ears with my hands. I couldn't care less if my right hand was throbbing in pain.

"Do you feel...different or strange?" Mother followed.

"Uh...Not really...except for this...headache..." I said each word painfully.

"Cedric...Here." Father said as I heard a wand being flicked and waved. "Go and take a look."

I looked up and saw a large mirror, just like the one I had just conjured earlier when the Princess was still here. I slowly made my way towards it as I could see my mother closing the curtains on the large window. I was still wobbly, but I was regaining my strength a bit at a time as I draw closer towards the large mirror. My hand gets a firm hold of the mirror's surface and I gradually feel my way towards the frame edges of the mirror. I slowly looked up and see something else looking at me. It was a face of a different person, staring at me in the eyes, as if he was almost mimicking me, at the exact same time and movement. I paused for a moment, staring blankly into the mirror. Then I assume that this was my father's way of trying to get me back on my feet by insulting my facial features. I always knew that I was badly looking, that I never had a good face , which was why I was always never summoned out in public view.

I tried to turn to face my parents' face, but a small detail had caught the corner of my eye as I tried to face back into the mirror. My parents' normal reflections were still in the mirror, both side were still the same. Only in my reflection was a face I couldn't recognize, not even I would've believed it if my parents weren't the ones around now. I tried to move my left arm, the reflection did the same. I moved my head slowly turning side to side, the reflection still followed. When I tried to lift my right hand, I could see a purple sash wrapped around the reflected hand, along with the very same knot that the Princess had done on mine not long ago. I looked at my own hand and carefully unravel the sash on my hand, I dropped the sash and took off my glove, the wound was still there. I showed it to the mirror, and the reflection did the same, showing me the open wound.

"Is that...me?" I was almost scared by my own voice as I finally realized that my ears were not longer ringing and I could hear clearly. "Is that...really me...in this mirror?" I said once more to make sure my hearing wasn't wrong.

I slowly see my mother walking up to me in the mirror.

"I'm afraid so. This is most certainly the 'You' that both your father and I are facing at the moment." She said while hugging me. "This is the 'Cedric-kins' we're facing at the moment." She pauses and quickly takes my wounded hand. "What happened to your hand?!"

"This was from an earlier accident when Prince James came in here the other day." I said while trying to wrap it back in with the sash.

"Here." Mother says and points her wand at my wound. She conjured my hand wrapped up in bandages, where I'd still be able to move my fingers freely.

I scratched the back of my head, avoiding the ponytail that was still intact on my hair. I looked at the mirror once more to get a good look at myself. The front part of my hair was no longer in a shade of gray, but it has turned to an incredibly solid white color, like a more shinier and lighter blonde. My clothes were stretching a bit due to my once skinny-figure to my current more firmer body. My sleeves and leggings were almost giving out, but I tried not to breath too excessively as I might tear out the only clothing I had left. My stomach was not only flat, it had a few lumps just as I rub my stomach straight downwards. I could even feel the extra little weight in my legs as I tried to shift my feet to position myself. The only smallest change I've found is my nose, which only shrunk by a fourth of its original length. My robe was almost about to give in.

"Here." Father says as he waves wand.

I watched as his magic dusts particles fly around me. When the dusts have disappeared I tired stretching around to test out my clothes. The material of my clothing had became stretchy, even my trousers. I also had a new pair of fingerless gloves, covering the wound bandage. The few things that didn't change were my robe, which was already in my father's arms, and my shoes, which were still the same ones and size. The style of my clothes had remained the same. It was then I noticed how broad my shoulders were when I shifted my attention from my clothes to my arms as I try and move my arms around.

"I've rematerialized them to your built and size." He said. "But we can't hold onto this design forever-"

"My! Oh my!" My mother started clapping away. "I've never seen my son look so manly and handsome! Lemme hug you for a bit, Cedric-Kins!"

I struggled to try and not get myself crushed, only to remember that I am no longer thin enough for her hug me around in one whole embrace since she was hugging me half way.

"Ehem. As I was saying." Father disrupts the awkward moment, thankfully. "Let's try reversing you back to your normal self with a spell." He takes out his wand and points at me. "_Biggicus growamuss, This spell undoitus!_"

The magic particles shoots out from his wand and hits at me. But when I looked into the mirror, I was still in the same new image.

"Huh?" I exclaimed.

"'Huh' indeed." Father said as he scratched his head. "Okay. Let's try this. '_Reverso!'_

I stood in front of the mirror as the spell hits at me again, but I still remained unchanged.

"_'Undosium!'_"

Still nothing.

"_Takebackitus!_"

Nothing again.

Father kept on casting spells, one after another, even going as far as using a reversing potion on me, until his arm was too sore to hold it up anymore and stopped conjuring anymore spells, while catching his breath.

"This is very odd." He said. "They should've worked. Any one of those spells should've worked on you. How are none of the spells not working so?"

"Maybe I should try them on myself." I said and took out my wand, the Elder wand.

I conjured all of the spells he did, including some of my own ones, but none of them seemed to be working either.

"It's...very strange." I said.

"If both of us can't seem to be able to do it, then we have to find the exact antidote or counter spell meant for this problem. We must first figure out how did this happen and what did this to you. Hm.." He thought for a moment. "What were you doing just before the thick smoke filled the room? Could you think of anything that might've caused your transformation?"

"Hm...I only remembered that the cauldron filled with the Fireworks Potion mixture spilled onto the floor from the workbench over there-" I suddenly recalled the small incident with Princess tying my wound bandage up and shook my head to brush it off.

"Are you alright?" Father asks. "Do you have a headache or-"

"Huh? Yes, yes, yes. I'm alright. Just recalled that my head is still crashing in the-"

Just as I mentioned 'crashing' a flashback of a glass breaking had replayed in my head. I looked up where one of my highest shelf was, then I looked on the floor. A potion bottle with blue hue colored liquid was on the floor with the top and the cork cracked apart. I gently moved mother off my waist without asking and I immediately picked up the bottle without spilling, and from what I remembered, it seems that a third of this has been reduced from its original amount.

"I think this is what got mixed into the Fireworks Potion mixture." I said as I carefully held the bottle by the base. "Exactly a third of this got mixed into the mixture."

"May I ask what that is?" Father asked as his tone sounded worried.

"It's the Age Potion that I-"

"AGE POTION?!" He yelled. "AND THAT'S THE FIREWORKS POTION?!" He pointed towards the liquid coming out from the cauldron.

"Y-Yes." I was a little startled. "T-That's right."

"Oh no...no...no...no...no..." Father's voice started fading as he put his hand on his forehead, almost as if his head was getting to heavy for him to carry on his own.

"What's wrong, Goodie?" Mother went over to him.

Father didn't answer right away, but it took him a few good moments before he removed his hand from his head and looked at her with really sadden eyes.

"I'm afraid...we have a time bomb ticking in our son." He says.

"What?!" She yelped.

"But I don't feel like I've swallowed a Bomb Potion...if there ever was one." I was trailing off.

"There is one kind of magic that has stopped from being passed down after my generation, Cedric. Wait here while I get the book." He says while going up the staircases around the wall.  
Mother goes to my side as we watched him go up until he reached a window where I would usually attempt to grow rare magical flowers as some of my magical ingredients needed for some spells. Just at the side of the wall he taps his wand in some sort of pattern against it, and out comes a book magically emerging from the side of the wall, as if watching a book melting in reverse.

"There was a book there?!" I spoke my mind. I was still not used to my new voice.

"Why would you hide a book in such a place?" Mother was surprised as well as I am.

"I hid this, for a good reason." He says walking down while flipping through the book. "This book was handed down to me by my father, from his father, and so on and so forth. I have seen what the spells from this book can do, and believe me, there are spells far too terrible and terrifying to cast out, even with someone with as much experience as I have."

I'm sure he is just trying to show off his amazing knowledge and wisdom to mother, but I didn't care about that, I wanted to know the contents of what that book has inside.

"This book is the other partner of the Elder wand, the one I had given to you a few good years ago. Only with the Elder wand you can cast the spells from this book. If the spells cast from this book were to be said wrongly even by one word or used with a different wand entirely, you would be inflicted with part of a terrible Demon Boar's facial features, an ancient demon too terrifying for one to even look at, not even for three straight seconds. I never dared to cast any of the spells from here, but I did see what it had done to my father, for it had terrified my mother to the bones, she even spends most of her time helping the homeless outside instead of doing it all at home."

He finally stops flipping as he reached the last step of the stairs, walks over to us with the book still opened facing him. He clears his throat just as he stops walking.

"In the third section's 'Forbidden Potions Combinations'...the second one...Ah ha! Here it is." He points gently as the pages of the book were so old and crisp that one wrong strength could crumble the whole thing into dusts. "Cindora's Clock. The name was inspired by two most famous princesses in the world, mainly because of the magic that cast onto them: Cinderella's Midnight Spell and Aurora's True Love's Kiss. This potion is mixed with two potions: the Age Potion and the Fireworks Potion.

"The Fireworks Potion can be used in any amount, but the Age Potion is base on the drinker's age and the required dosage needed to be measured. For example, the drinker is fifty years of age, he shall calculate the Age Potion as fifty. If the drinker wants to be ten years younger, he shall only drink a fifth of the potion. If the drinker wants to be thirty years younger, he shall only drink three fifths of the potion, just as long as he remembers the Fireworks Potion should be mixed into it. To release the potion's effect, one must find his other half, his partner, his soul mate, and with a kiss shall the curse be lifted and broken.

"The Cindora's Clock can be categorized in both the 'Good' and the 'Bad' list. The 'Good' reason is that this can help the person, the one who shall drink the potion, to find his other half, his partner, his soul mate, without having to go through multiple heartbreaking relationships and unsuccessful marriages.

"The reason for the 'Bad' spell is mainly due to the time limit that is given to the drinker, he has to successfully find his other half, his partner, his soul mate, within the time limit before his soul...is drained away from his body. For every time his feels anxiety, jealousy, or sadness, his heart beats two times faster, thus the potion gets absorbed into the heart a lot more than normally, although this only happens when the drinker is transformed into the younger self, and the transformational change is every twelve hours, on every strike of twelve." My father ends the reading by closing the book with one hand.

I slumped down onto the floor as realization hits me in the head, telling me that I've only got a year to find my other half, my soul mare before I am to vanish from this world forever. I haven't even accomplished my dream of taking over the Enchancia Kingdom, and I've done no wrong doings to anyone or anything as of late, yet my life has been reduced to only one year, or less than if I were to get emotionally negative.

"Goodie?" I hear Mother sounding worried. "Isn't there anything else in the book that could help us, for our son?"

I looked up and saw father, on his knees, staring at the book in his hand.

"...There isn't, Winifred...there isn't...THERE ISN'T ANYTHING I CAN DO!"

He yells out as he throws the book to the floor. A cloud of dusts comes out of the book as it hits the floor. He holds his hands into fists as he starts hammering hard into the stone floor. Mother helplessly trying to hold his hands, stopping his from hurting himself while she desperately tries to stop her flowing tears from running down onto her dress.

I decided to make my decision as I slowly stood up on my own two feet, then I went over to my parents and knelt down in front of them.

"Father, Mother." I said. "I won't give up just yet."

My Father looked up at me with swollen eyes when he stopped moving his red beaten hands.

"What ever do you mean, Cedric?" Mother asks.

"Father, you have not once read out or mentioned anything in the book that there was a spell, incantation, or potion solution that could reverse my problem. It only mentioned that I have to find a soul mate to be able to break my curse, which I know will be impossible to find. Maybe, and this is just a thought, that there could be a missing page related to it in the book, or that there could be a follow up of the subject in a second book that even you might not have heard or seen of. Don't you think it's worth to try and give it a search, rather than to just give up and hurting yourself away on the hard ground?"

Father slowly looked up and our eyes met, then on his knees he slowly crawls towards me and gives me a firm hug. One could tell that he really wanted to let it all out, but he was too proud of a man to show any tears in front of mother. He then pulled away with his hands still on my shoulders and looked up at me.

"You do know what this means, for you at least." He said.

"Uhh...What?"

"That whenever you're going to change from your older self, to the younger self, you'll have to hide from everyone, including the King himself." He said as his voice deepens by each word. "Especially _Princess Sofia_!"

I tried to think of an idea or a solution to say my way in case I do stumble upon a situation like that, but I got nothing.

"I've got one, for the time being at least."

The both of us turned to mother who pulled both of us up, with her visible dried tears still stained on her cheeks.

"We could always say that you're going on a vacation to visit us, and you won't be back until half a year later. Then you could hide inside here since nobody will come into this room until your supposed return date." She said.

"Hmm. That could work. What do you think, Cedric?" Father seems satisfied with the idea.

But I shook my head.

"I'm afraid that won't do. Princess Sofia always manages to come inside anytime she wants to since I told her that she could come into the workshop and tidy up the place, whether I'm around or not. Even without the special key to this room she somehow manages to let herself in." I said, recalling how she's actually entered here on a number of occasions, without my physical presence. "Besides, asking for a vacation for that long would state that I wanted to retire. I can't do that."

"Hmm..."

Both mother and father tried their hardest to think of a solution, but nothing came to any one of our minds as moments turned into seconds, and seconds turned into minutes. The both of them even went up and down the book shelves to try and find a 'second' book, but it wasn't long before their age caught up to them and got them exhausted after just searching through only the first two rows of books on the first shelf. I went over to my dark curtains attempting to search for anything useful down the basement until something flashed into my eyes. I looked and saw the coat rack with the robe filled with golden stitches that the Princess had just given not too long ago. The happy look she had on her face when I wore it onto myself in front of her. It's a shame that I won't get to wear it as often as I thought I would. It was such a nice feeling to have when you are given a gift as they're the only ones who truly appreciates all of your hard work that you put into your work, and they've been with you right from the start.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Cedric?" It was Baileywick's voice.

I ran back from behind the curtains as my parents quickly went down from the shelves.

"What do we do, Goodie?" Mother panicked as she whispered.

"Open the portal to Mystic Meadows and go back first, I'll handle it from here." Father whispered back and hands her my robe and the book.

Mother gave me one last wave as she waves her wand and opens a rainbow warping portal, she walks through it until she disappeared.

"What's your plan?" I whispered to him.

Just then Baileywick opens the door and walks in, letting himself inside.

"Cedric! How many times must I-" He pauses upon seeing father. "Mr. Goodwyn! I didn't know that you were in here! Are you here to see His Majesty? Oh, where are my manners? How rude of me! I apologize! How are you? How's your wife doing? And-" He turns to see the fallen cauldron with its contents still all over the floor. "Oh my goodness! What on earth happened in here?"

"Oh. Don't worry about it. I kind of barged in on my son by accident while he was working on a potion. Just don't let anyone touch it." Father smiled in response. Waved his hand. Just like that. Magic.

"Alright then." Baileywick then notices me. "Oh. And you are...?"

"I...I...I-"

"He is...Jaime." Father cuts me off. "He is a student at Cedric's old Sorcery school. Ha ha. That's right. He is assigned to be on self-study leave under my supervision, in preparation for...uh...his finals that are due in six months time."

"Oh. It's Jaime with a silent 'J' sound. What a fabulous name," He held out his hand to me after giving a slight bow. "Good to meet you. I'm Baileywick, the Butler of this castle."

"Uh...I'm Jaime. A pleasure to meet you, too." I took shook his hand in return, almost hesitated.

"Such strong hands." He says as he massages his hand. I might've gripped onto his hand a bit too tight. "Mr. Goodwyn. His Majesty is looking for Cedric. Is he around by any chance?"

"Ah. Yes. About that." Father clears his throat. "Uh...I'm afraid you've just missed him."He points at the portal just behind us. "He just went to Mystic Meadows."

"Why is he there?" He adjusted his glasses.

"You know of the recent illness that has been spreading around? Well, it has also hit some of our folks back at Mystic Meadows, and we don't have enough hands to help out with aiding them. That's why I came here to ask for Cedric's help." Father explained, convincingly.

"But we need Cedric to stand by in case someone else in the castle also gets infected, Mr. Goodwyn." He was starting to sound concerned.

"Ah. That's where Jaime here comes in." Father points at me. "Even though he's still in preparation for his finals, he is capable enough to help out. You have to understand that none of the folks back at Mystic Meadows don't really trust Jaime yet to be cured by him. Of course, I'll try and make the folks get used to his presence and skill, and to do that I need both Jaime and Cedric to do half-day shifts."

"I'm gonna assume this as a guess. So...Jaime will be with us from noon to midnight, and Cedric from midnight to noon, am I correct?" Baileywick crosses his arms and uses his finger to visually imagine a clock in front of him.

"Exactly." Father says strongly. "I'd like to tell this to King Roland myself, but I'm afraid I must be heading back myself as soon as possible. Do you mind if you could-"

"Tell His Majesty myself? It would be my pleasure, Mr. Goodwyn. Jaime will be in safe hands, I promise." Baileywick says happily.

"Alright. I just need a few words with Jaime here, if you don't mind." Father nods his head.

"Of course. And please, do take care of yourself, Mr. Goowyn. Jaime, I shall be waiting outside for you when you're done." Baileywick bows and walks out through the door.

I looked at father with the most troublesome look on my face, and he could clearly see that as he pats me on the shoulder.

"I hope you do not screw this up, Cedric. I shall be back five minutes before twelve tonight, to open the portal for you just to go over to the other side and transform back into your real self and come back here to the workshop. Remember, just act normally, and think about your answers before you speak. They may ask you a lot, but I know that you can handle this."

"But father! What do I do if I screw things up? What if-"

"There's no 'what ifs' in this situation, Cedric. it's either face it or run." He says as he puts something into my hands and holds them together firmly. "Please, do things right, for your own sake." Then steps into the portal and the portal closes by magically shrinking and vanishes.

I took a deep breath and heavily let it out. Then I opened my hands and saw a dark and thick folded cloth in my hands. I quickly flopped it open and a very dark green colored cape was in my hands. He must've realized that my robe might be too small for me and gave me a cape instead. I quickly snapped on the cape around my neck and took my Elder wand, but remembered that only 'Cedric' has this wand. I briskly went behind the curtain and took out my special wand case, an earlier Wassailia gift Princess Sofia also gave to me a few good years back, and placed my Elder wand in it, and store away the box. I went to my working table and took one of the spare wands in the cylinder container and magically slid it up my sleeves, and realized on the spot that my magic skills are still alright. I turned to check on Wormwood's bird stand, who was already looking at me. I guess he understands what's happened to me and didn't panic all over the place.

"I hope all goes well, Wormy." I said.

"Ark! Ark!" He replied.

I turned towards the door, opened and closed the door. On the one of the gargoyle statue's toes on the right of my door has a small space compartment, I open it and was about to slip the key right in it when I suddenly recalled how I had opened this toe Princess Sofia when she was younger and had just arrived from her Royal Prep school soaked in water from head to toe. I closed the toe of the gargoyle and slid the key up in one of my sleeves like I did with my wand. Now I know for sure that none of the

I proceeded to walk down the spiral staircase and found Baileywick standing right at the foot of the staircase. I was about to given my unwelcoming expression, but I reminded myself that I am currently known as Jaime, Cedric, and tried my best to smile.

"Did I take too long?" I said with hesitation.

"No. Not at all, Jaime." Baileywick smiled. "Shall we get going?"

"O-Of course, uh, Mr. Baileywick."

"None of that now." He made a 'no' with his finger moving side to side. "Just call me 'Baileywick'. Only the castle staffs in training call me that. You are with Mr. Goodwyn, so just please call me like he does, Jaime."

"Uh...alright." I gave my answer. "Please lead the way, uh, Baileywick."

"Excellent. Right this way." He says happily.

I walked along right beside him. I looked out of the window, only to realize that it was already getting dark as the sun was setting. I looked along the hallways and saw how the light of the sunset illuminated the area. It was really beautiful.

"It's...a really nice color." I spoke my mind.

"Do you mean the sunset?" Baileywick says.

"Uh...Yes. Sorry, I kind of spoke out my thoughts just then." I said.

"It's alright. It's kind of nice to know that there are some people who take a moment of their time to enjoy of what nature has to offer." He says as he looks out through the hall's windows. "Tell me, do you usually go on hikes or camping?"

"No. I never really had the time to." I replied.

"Usually studying, right? Don't worry. One of these days, maybe you and I could take on a trip together and camp somewhere, let's say, in Peppertree Forest." He says.

"Maybe, but I don't usually go well with Mother nature." I raised a brow.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be alright. It'll be fun." He giggled.

I always thought of him as a nuisance, since we always disagree with each other as we never liked one another, probably because he's always picking on me like I'm some of teenage rascal, but he's really not so bad at all when you actually get to know him on his good side.

It took awhile before we finally arrived at the doors of the Royal family's dinning room. He opens the doors on both handles and walks us both into the dinning room. The whole family was present: the King in the chair at the end of the table with his right side facing us, the Queen was sitting on the King's right side facing in my direction, Prince James was chewing loudly and is eating as if he was a hungry bear next to the Queen, Princess Amber was sitting to the King's left side with her back facing me, and finally Princess Sofia sitting after Princess Amber with her back also facing me. The King takes notice of us and puts down his set of knife and fork.

"Excuse me, Your Majesties." Baileywick announces our arrival to the Royal family. "I have here a guest who will be staying with us for a while. This young man here is Jaime, he's a young Sorcerer student who is preparing for his finals that is due in the next six months, so that he could graduate and become a full pledged Sorcerer."

The King takes his dinner napkin and gently taps his mouth clean. He then stands up and holds out his right hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Jaime."

"Oh. It-It's an honor to meet you, Your Majesty." I went over and gave a bow before I took and shook his hand. I was trying my hardest to smile as normally as I could. "P-Please forgive me if I'm not behaving in a proper way, Your Majesty. I-I'm not used to such, um, surroundings."

"Ha ha. It's alright. It's just going to take some time getting used to things, that's all." He holds Queen Miranda's left hand and helps her up from her seat. "This is my wife, Queen Miranda."

"It's an honor, Queen Miranda." I bowed this time, without a pause.

"Thank you, Jaime. Please, make yourself feel at home." She curtsies and sits back down in her chair.

"And these are my children. Why don't you introduce yourselves to our guest?" King Rolland says as he sits back down into his chair and takes a sip from one of his drinking cups.

"Hui-yha. I'ahim Pur'nce Ja'mes." Prince James says with his hand still holding the almost finished chicken and his mouth full of chicken.

"James. Mind your manners." Baileywick tells him off.

"GULP! Sorry. It's just very tasty." James swallows, but takes on another bite after he finishes his sentence.

"I'm sorry you have to see this, Jaime." Baileywick turns to me and apologizes on the Prince's behalf.

"It's alright." I replied. "S-Strong young men should always eat more to preserve their strength to, uh, keep themselves energized to last until the day ends. That's what my mother always used to say to me."

"I guess that's true." Baileywick shrugs and smiles. "You must have a great mother."

Princess Amber puts down her set of utensils, stands out of her chair and curtsies.

"I'm Princess Amber. Hope you try to get used to castle life. It's usually hectic and demanding." She says as she sits back down. "Especially when I'm around."

"Thanks for the advice, Princess Amber." I replied with my head bowing. "I think." while raising a brow.

Then finally Princess Sofia stands up from her chair and walks over to me. As she comes closer I suddenly recalled about her request from earlier, about creating a person out of magic as her dancing partner.

"Oh! Princess Sofia!" I blurt her name out by mistake upon thinking of that flashback.

"Huh?" She says when she stops in front of me. "You know who I am?"

"Uh..." I almost panicked, but I bowed to hide my reaction. "Ah, yes. Both Mr. Goodwyn and Mr. Cedric has told me a great deal about you."

"Ooh. I see. And how do you know both Mr. Goodwyn and Mr. Cedric?" She asks.

"I'm a Sorcerer student on study leave from the same school that Mr. Cedric used to attend and graduated from, and Mr. Goodwyn is my assigned Supervisor for my six-months-self-study-period. I'm studying for my finals, you see."

"Wow. That's amazing." She curtsies. "It's nice to know you, Jaime. I hope you and I will get to know one another a little better." And gives her big innocent smile.

"But of course, Princess." I nodded. I was glad this time she pronounced the name correctly, unlike before when she first arrived here and kept on calling me 'Cee-Drick'. It was pretty annoying too, reminded me of a certain person I used to have trouble with.

I had to control myself from getting nervous, because her smile alone is a dangerous weapon, and once my true identity is known, everyone will try to get rid of me.

"Is it hard to become a Sorcerer?" Queen Miranda asks.

"Huh? Uh...Yes. It's quite hard actually, Queen Miranda. My, uh, front hair, has been drained of its color because there are times that I, uh, don't quite remember what or how to say the spells and incantations properly. I make mistakes far too often when I conjure up any spells, thus, my front hair resulted into the color that it is now." I point to my white front hair.

"Jaime!" James called out for my attention. "If I were to cast a whole or half a spell wrong, would my hair color change depending on how frequent I do? Would saying different kinds of spells wrongly also differ?"

"Oh ho ho, No, no, Prince James. It's either you'd get white hairs or gray hairs, and I personally would rather get gray hairs." I laughed a little. "It shows you've gotten less mistakes."

"Oh. Too bad." James went to continue on his food. "It would've been cool to get a green color. I could always look like a dragon and try to scare Zandar."

"Why on earth would you want to do that?" My thoughts slipped out of my mouth, but no one seems to mind.

"So Cedric's actually better on his spells? In my opinion, it doesn't seem to make any difference no matter how much you look at it, Cedric would always make a fool out of himself, worse than you, Jaime."

I wanted to tell her off about that, but I just cleared my throat and remained smiling.

"At least you're finally preparing for your finals, right? That's what counts." Sofia comments.

"Uh...right, Princess." I replied. "That's right. Heh he." and gave a big grin. It's really hard to shift emotions between these three. Any more of this silliness and I could go berserk, instantly.

"Well then, why don't you join us for dinner, Jaime?" The King asked. "You must be hungry, having to come here at this time of the night. You can take a seat with us while Baileywick goes to get Cedric for you."

"About that, Your Majesty." Baileywick quickly follows. "Jaime's not here to look for Cedric. He's here because of him."

"What do you mean, Baileywick?" King Roland looks up with a curious look.

"Jaime has currently changed shifts with Cedric, and Cedric is now in Mystic Meadows."

"Changed shifts?" Amber raised a brow.

"Some of the old folks back at Mystic Meadows also got infected by the recent illness that's been going around in some of the places, and they needed Cedric's help since they don't have enough sorcerers around to help out with the medical cure. Jaime isn't a graduate yet to be able help out with such a mission, but he is allowed to help and work around the castle as a Royal Sorcerer for the time being, for a period of six months."

"Why is that?" Queen Miranda asks.

"Mr. Goodwyn was afraid that I might make the old folks feel uncomfortable, especially since I'm a stranger to them and they might misjudge me for what I am. One look at my hair and you can tell that I have failed at least on a good number of spells. If I were to conjure up any complicated spells and did them wrongly on the old folks, I would be blamed and they would never give me a second chance, it's their lives that we're trying to save after all. Deep wounds and death, not even magic could undo those no matter how much you tried." I said with confidence.

"Very wisely said, Jaime." Baileywick certainly was impressed.

"How do you plan on having these shifts with Cedric, Jaime?" The King asks.

"I shall be here from noon to midnight, and Mr. Cedric will be here from midnight to noon." I answered.

"Couldn't you just help out with Cedric? That would be a whole lot of help than going through back and forth between the castle and Mystic Meadows. You could always stay out of sight until you are called for, right?" Amber stabs her food and puts it into her mouth.

"Princess Amber. I would take this opportunity to apologize to you in advance. As a princess you'd normally host tea parties and such. Tell me, how many of the castle's staffs do you usually ask to help you set up the tea party for you? And are they usually the same staffs that for every set up that you do?"

"Hmm...usually two to five, and yes, they're always the same ones." She answered after finishes chewing her food inside her mouth, then grabs another bite after she finishes her answer.

"If I were to suddenly help you arrange one of your tea parties in place of one or all of your usual staffs without any prior knowledge on how you usually arrange your parties, would you be alright with that?" I said.

She suddenly stops chewing, then looks up at me with a hard stare. For once she didn't answer back or reply, and having that feeling of victory deep inside of me, I smiled wider than ever.

"I understand what you mean." Princess Sofia answered. "I once went through something similar, and there was a time that I got really embarrassed and thought that I'd never fit in with everyone since I was once socially different, but in time I was accepted." She turns sideways to glance at her sister. "By everyone." Then she faces back to me. "I'm sure in time, you will be as well."

"Thank you, Princess Sofia." I replied. "Also, if any one of you here got infected, who will tend to the sickness?"

Princess Amber shot a glare at me. I think I just made an enemy.

"Oh." Princess Sofia's eyes suddenly shot wide open. "But if Mr. Cedric's there now, then he wouldn't have time to help with my problem." Her face went gloomy.

"What's the problem, Sofia?" The King asks her in his chair.

She proceeded to go over to the King's side.

"Actually, we're supposed to have a Tea Party at school tomorrow, but today we were told that it was changed into a Ball-Dance, and that I was one of those who didn't get paired up with anyone. I asked Mr. Cedric this afternoon to help me with the problem and that he would have a solution by the time dinner was over, but it looks like I won't be able to-"

"I-I beg your pardon, Princess." I quickly went over and interrupted her. "Mr. Cedric did not forget about your problem."

"Oh. So...he actually did it?" She raised her brow.

"It's actually because of your problem that I decided to personally come here and meet you all." I said. "It would be an honor if you'd accept me to be your partner for tomorrow's ball." I said with closed legs and took a very deep bow with my right hand over my heart. "That is if you will take me up on it."

I looked up with my head still bowed down, and I could see her reaction was somewhat surprised as she looked from me to her father.

"Oh. Uh, if the King and Queen permits me of course." I quickly added before I get told off for being rude.

"I think it's alright since you're with Goodwyn. What do you think, Miranda?" The King turns to his queen.

"I don't mind." She answers happily. "Oh. Do you have anything to wear for the dance, Jaime?"

"And please, stand back up." The King raises his hand to me.

"I'm ashamed to say this, but I do not own as much clothes as I need to have. I plan to conjure up one, for just this occasion." I replied honestly.

I really didn't have enough clothes of my own, most of the time I'd just decorate over my robe or cast an illusion over me just in case some of the fake decorations fall off of me or something else happens like some juice gets spilled over me, or anything that could put me on the spot.

"We could ask Madame Collette to make one for him, Dad. We could take his measurements before he goes back at twelve, and when he comes back at noon he could try on the clothes and make the quick adjustments if there are any parts loose or tight." Sofia turned to her father.

"That's fine by me." The King smiled.

"Great." She turns to me. "Then I accept your offer, Jaime."

"But first, please have some dinner with us." King Roland gestures at the table.

"Oh no. I couldn't possibly do that." I said with my hands waving quicker than ever. "This is a family dinner, and I'm nowhere near a member of your family. Besides, you only just got to see me."

But Princess Sofa turns to face me and takes both of my hands together, and sandwiches them both with her hands.

"We may not be ill or infected, but we have something called 'A sense of understanding and consideration' as part of our natural instincts. You may have just arrived and introduced yourself, but you are considered as part of the family the moment you decided to stay with us, even if it's only for a while." She pats my hand on the top. "Just take a seat next to me."

I decided to give in just so I wouldn't create a fuss. I would've had to wait a few more hours anyway to have my dinner over at my parents' place if I didn't get to eat.

"Alright." I said to the Princess. Then I turned to the King. "I shall take up on your offer, Your Majesty. Thank you very much."

"You're very welcome, Jaime. Baileywick." He nodded at me then to Baileywick.

"Right away, Your Majesty." And Baileywick quickly leaves the room.

Princess Sofia went in front of me and we walked passed Princess Amber and towards Princess Sofia's chair. I quickly went in front of her, pulled her chair and helped her sit in it. One of the castle's staff quickly came over and put down a chair for me. I gently gathered up my large cape and moved it behind me to my left side. I sat down in my chair and let my cape sit beside my left leg.

"You've got good strong arms, Jaime. Do you do any combat or sword fights?" The King was surprised at my arms.

"Oh no, Your Majesty. I only do jogging and running exercises. I'm not allowed to hold or wiled any bladed metals or weaponry as someone who is taking up on sorcery as a main occupational skill." I said truthfully, partially.

"Really? But you've got a really good built strong body." The Queen comments. "That must be a lot of running then."

"Yes. From three to seven in the morning, up and down the mountains, no water breaks until the run is done." I answered.

"Really?" Princess Amber was surprised. "Maybe James ought to learn a thing or two from Jaime."

I could see the Prince furrowed his brows together, staring hard at his sister while strongly chewing on his food.

"I-It's not that easy to do, Princess Amber." I quickly commented to disburse the negative atmosphere. "I do get exhausted from time to time and just slow down on my running pace, other times I get injured and have to finish the run limping. The times on when I do end up finishing late, I have to run an extra hour of the run as my punishment, still without a drop of water to drink."

"That's...harsh, even for me." The King commented.

"Still, the extra running did pay off. Look where your body's gotten to now." Princess Amber points her fork at me. "Unlike Cedric who is all skin and bones."

"Amber." Princess Sofia lowers her sister's fork.

"I think it's best if I just leave the table." I said as I stood up from my chair. "I do not want to-"

"Now, now, Jaime. I insist that you have dinner with us. I'd like to-"

"I beg to differ, Your Majesty." I interrupted the King from continuing. "I really do want to thank you for your generous offer for inviting me to have dinner with your family, but it seems that I am the cause of a peaceful dinner gone wrong. I shall retire to my-I mean, Mr. Cedric's workshop and wait for Princess Sofia there. I am glad to have met all of you, and thank you once again for accepting me into your castle, even if it'll only be for a short period of time." I bowed to the King first, then the rest of the family. "Good evening to you all. Please enjoy the rest of your dinner."

I quickly made my retreat out of the Dinning room and into the hallways on my way back to my workshop. Pretending to be someone else is hard enough, but to hear something about yourself right in front of the people who are talking about you is even more harder to bear, the only difference here is that I am in the body of a totally different person.

I subconsciously stopped walking, turned to look to see an opened curtained window just on my left side. The bright moon was out and the stars were out all over filling up the sky. It won't be long before it turns to midnight. I wonder if changing back will be any different? Will it hurt? Will it be like the first time, dizzy and weak for a few moments before I regain control over my body? Will I go unconscious before I start to change? Waiting for midnight to come is really taking a toll on my nerves.

"Jaime?"

I turned around and Princess Sofia was standing just next to me with her face all worried.

"Princess Sofia." I said in a mono-tone voice. "W-W-What are you doing here? You should be having dinner with your family."

"I...I left my dinner." She said. "I wanted to make sure that you were alright."

"You...Why would you do that?" I asked.

"I wanted to apologize to you, for making you feel uneasy."

I turned to face her as I cleared my throat.

"It's alright, Princess. It was my fault. I should've asked Baileywick to just escort me at a later time to meet your family. That was my mistake." I said. "If you'll excuse me, I shall go back to the workshop and wait till it's dinner time for all of the castle's staffs."

But she got a hold of my right shoulder.

"Jaime. Can I ask you something? What time do you have to go back exactly?"

"I have to be back in the workshop five minutes before twelve, so that I still have five minutes to prepare for my shift. Why do you ask?"

"Let's go." She said. "Follow me."

She takes me by the wrist on my right and pulls me along with her. I couldn't complain even if I wanted to do so. It wasn't long before we finally reached the room of the castle's dress maker, the famous Madame Collette. The door to the room was left wide opened as we could see her sewing away on a large piece of fabric material. The Princess knocks on the door to get her attention, and it worked as she stops sewing and looks at our way.

"Good evening, Madame Collette." The Princess Curtsies.

"Oh. Princess Sofia. Welcome, welcome." She says as she puts down her sewing on a nearby table and stands up.

Both of us walks into the room and I try to shut the door.

"Please do not close it, young man." Madame Collette spoke. "I'm trying to let some air in since some of the fabrics in the room are starting mold up. My newly hired apprentice is awfully forgetful as she always forgets to open the small window to let in some air, otherwise the whole room's fabrics will be filled be mold and I'll have to order another batch, which will end up being delivered here after a month or so."

"Wow." The Princess was either astonished or amazed. I couldn't tell.

"Now then. What can I do for you, Princess Sofia?" She asks.

"Actually, I'd like for you to make a suit for my school's Ball-Dance tomorrow evening. It's for him, Jaime, who will be my dancing partner." She introduced me as I bowed.

"Oh. Such a fine name for a fine young man." Madame Collette made her comment. "Are there any requests for his suit?"

The Princess casts over her bracelet on and turned it into a wand. She mumbles a few words and out came an imagery of a green gown. It wasn't too fancy, but it was all shiny and long. The top part was an off shoulder, but it doesn't have any supporting fabric front the bust to hang onto the shoulders. The sleeves were long and asymmetrically lengthened to somewhat show the feminine taste. On all around the edges of the dress are ended with a glittery gold lining. It was simple, yet it had a sense of elegance and femininity.

"Could you sew up something similar to this in color and theme? It has to be done by tomorrow afternoon, before we leave for the Ball-Dance." She asked.

Madame Collette was immediately absorbed into the dress, slowly walking around it, even if it was just an illusion, as if she was searching for a tiny flaw to judge the maker of the dress.

"Gold and green, is that the theme, Princess Sofia?" She asks while looking at the dress.

"Yes."

"How about your shoes?"

"Green with gold lining just around the entrance for the feet."

"Will you be wearing any gloves?"

"Nope. No gloves."

"Hmm..." Madame Collette went around once more. "He...shall have a long sleeved white lacy shirt with a jabot and a hard collar...a lighter green waist coat with golden embroidery all over...black breeches with elastic waist to the back, zipper and button fastening to the front...white socks of course...a green...uh...semi-woollen jacket with golden buttons...and a pair of black shoes with golden buckles." She rubs her hands together, then her head slightly turns to look at me. "Young man, do you prefer wearing white gloves or none at all?"

I was about to decline to the glove, but then I remembered that I still had that large would on my right hand that Prince James had caused.

"I'd rather wear a pair, if you don't mind." I added.

"It's no problem. One pair of silk white gloves." She takes a hold of my left hand, quickly takes it off, puts her left hand's palm against mine, and looks at them from a side view. "Bigger by an inch...right..." then she lets go, swiftly returning my glove. "Lemme just jot all of them down...somewhere..." She mumbles as she looks over on one of the large tables for a paper and quill.

I quickly put back my glove on, with heart pounding relief that she didn't take my right glove instead. I curved my hand like a half opened glove and hovered over my mouth as I cleared my throat, which caught the attention of the Princess as I lowered my head a bit close enough to the side of her ear.

"Pardon me, Princess. Could you kindly tell me exactly what she just said, the 'breeches' and 'jabot' and all of the rest, uh, please?" I asked quietly.

"Of course." She replied softly. "She said you will have a white long sleeved shirt with some laces on the sleeves and a jabot, a frilling or ruffles decorated at the front of the shirt. Then you will have a green waist coat filled with a gold patterned embroidery, like a jacket, only with no sleeves and it's made to be an exact fit on your upper body. Next is the breeches, a clothing covering from the waist down with separate coverings for each leg, ending just below the knees. The socks end just below the knees, the supporters for keeping the leggings of the breeches tucked inside. The jacket of course goes on top, and finally a pair of black dancing shoes with gold buckles and a small strap to keep your feet from loosing the shoes."

"Ah. I get it." I answered silently.

"Why do you need the gloves though?" She asked curiously. "Even though it is normal for guys to have a pair."

"I'd rather not soil your delicate hands with mine, Princess. Besides, a student Sorcerer's hands aren't allowed to get soiled with anything, not until graduation. Even when going to the washroom I have to bring a different pair for washing under the water. Although I do need to get them cleaned again since your Dressmaker here did touch mine with hers." I finished and stood straight again.

The eyes of the Princess were so wide the moment I got to look at her face. I guess it's you could say they could almost pop out if I had said any more weird things. If I were to summarize what the Princess had just explained to me, I'd have something similar to what King Roland would wear, only the jacket would look like the castle guards' ones, just with more class.

Madame Collette finishes with her writing and turns back to us while still holding her quill.

"Er...Your name, young man?" She looks at me.

"Jaime." I answered short. She must've forgotten it in the mist of excitement.

"Alright." She jots my name down. "Could you come over here and measure yourself with this? I usually have Baileywick help me measure for all of the male royalties and staff members." She held up her hand with a long tape measure dangling in it.

"I'll do it." The Princess waves her wand to dissolve the floating dress and levitates the tape measure from Madame Collette's hand over to my side. "Where first?"

I almost panicked for a moment there, or I would've ran for my dear life having to let the Princess touch me with her own hands.

"Let's go for the height first." Madame Collette pointed in the air.

The tape measure went everywhere around my body, going from my head to my feet, my shoulders to my waist, even around my legs and my feet. The Princess's control over the tape measure was superb, and it was a good thing that used her magic to do so, otherwise I'd going hysterical if she had personally done it on me with her hands. The measurements went on for awhile, but we finally finished without making any miscalculations

"I think we're good." Madame Collette shoots her quill into her quill holder. "You can come by anytime from noon onwards. We'll be able to spend some extra time to make adjustments if needed."

"Thank you very much." The Princess curtsies.

"I'm really grateful for going through your way just to make a suit for a lowly person such as I." I bowed.

"Nonsense." She snapped."Whether Royalty or our dear co-workers, I always do my best in making the best garments for everyone. It's usually the case of who is in more need of my services than other who aren't."

"Alright." I raised a brow. "In that case, please try not to stress too much." I bowed again.

"I'm always stressed, I just usually add a bit of fun to my work. No need to worry." She smiled.

I made my way over to the door and left the room. Princess Sofia was waiting for me just outside.

"Let's get going." She said.

"Where to, Princess?"

"To your last stop for the night." She smiled as she walked ahead of me.

I decided not to ask any further and just followed behind.

Whenever the Princess would visit the workshop, she'd always be asking for favors or spells and potions. To be in the position of being looked after by her is, well, quite nice for a change. Although I do miss the superiority and respect that I had as a Royal Sorcerer, being able to experience the special treatment first hand is something I used to only be able to dream of every time I sleep. Might as well enjoy it all before I regret not to do so.

We arrived at the hall. I followed the Princess to the foot of the staircase where just on the top is the hall's balcony.

"We're almost there." She says and walks ahead carrying the sides of her dress with her hands to avoid tripping on them while climbing up.

I followed just a little ways behind her, and when I reached to the top, my heart stopped beating. It's this scene again, just like the night before.

"What's...this, Princess?" I tried to speak as best as I could.

"I'd like you to join me for dinner, from where we left off." She says. "This place is somewhat special to me, and I'd like to share it with you, too." She starts walking over to her chair.

I quickly snapped out of my trance state and went over to the chair where the Princess would be sitting in by pulling up her chair. She gracefully sat in it as I slowly walked over to the other side. Same as before, I gathered up my large cape and moved it to my left towards the window, placed it beside me as I sat down in the other chair.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"We're here so that we could have our dinner. Look." She gestured at the table.

The table setting was exactly the same as last night, except there are a few exceptions. There is a large plate filled with fish slices, a small amount of sauce decorated on the side of it, and some stick slices of carrots and potatoes. A somewhat different menu, just a little too identical with the chicken slices. There is, oddly enough, smaller plate with slices of strawberries, probably about four or five pieces of them as a whole.

There are about five pieces of utensils all together, one spoon, two knives and two forks. The spoon is the farthest on my right, so I'm going to assume that it's the first thing to use. There are no other meat or protein foods, so the Dinner utensils set is scratched out. The only remaining batch are the vegetables, so the inner set of utensils must be...the Salad knife and fork. The only other things on the table are the two cups of water and orange juice, and Baileywick's signature 'Swan Folded Napkin' on the side.

"What I meant to say is why are we having dinner here and not in the dinning room?" I tried to expand my question.

"The dinning room's being cleaned up at the moment, and it's kinda big for just the two of us." She commented. "Let's not make the food go to waste." She says as she picks up her Fruit spoon.

"Alright." I said as I picked up mine and began to eat the slices of strawberries.

"Oh." The Princess sounded surprised. "How did you know to use that spoon first?" She questioned.

"Huh?" I blinked.

"Was it Mr. Cedric?" She asked with curious eyes.

"Uh, Yes, Mr. Cedric, Yes." I almost fumbled. "It was Mr. Cedric who taught me. W-whenever he learns something new he shares them with me. So that I wouldn't embarrass myself if ever I do end up serving for a Royal family somewhere else. Uh he-he...he." I need more thinking power if she doesn't believe me on this one, and fast.

"Oh. How clever of Mr. Cedric to pass the knowledge onto you." She smiled on her appraisal. "You must be really fond of him, Jaime."

"W-Well...I try not to show it." I could feel myself starting to blush.

"I do hope he comes back soon though. I've got so many things to ask and talk to him about." She says as she continues to eat her food.

"More spells and potions I presume?"

"Most of the time, but I just like to be around him. Let's quickly finish up on our dinner so that you can go back to Mr. Goodwyn's on time."

"Righto." I said as I went for the largest piece of vegetable on my plate, even though I never was fond of the greens.

* * *

_Sofia's POV_

I usually like to eat with someone at the table, not only for the sake of companionship, but also the food tastes better when enjoyed with someone else. I was hoping to have dinner with Mr. Cedric again, but here I am instead with Mr. Goodwyn's newest apprentice, Jaime. Who knew that sorcerers could be so alike, not only in personality, but in gestures too.

"That was nice." Jaime said as he sets his utensils down in the middle of his finished plate. "I do hope to always have food as good as this everyday."

"Why not have dinner with us every night from now on? At least, until the end of your stay here in our castle." I said as I drank from my cup of water.

"Oh, I can't do that, Princess. Until I get myself used to this place, I simply must eat with the castle staff. I'd rather get to know everyone at my own pace, to the point where I can at least earn their trust, from the castle staffs, then you and your family."

"Aright." I said as I put down my cup. "I'll let you be. But when the time comes that I really do want you to be at our table, I expect you to be obedient about it."

"O-Of course, Princess."

"And I do hope that you won't go back on your word."

"I-I won't. I promise." He raises his right hand and makes an 'X' over his heart. His left hand was still on the table holding up the knife.

I nodded.

His plate was cleaned out. He lays his utensils down into the center of his plate, both of the handles' ends were facing towards me. Then picks up his cup of water, and in about three gulps he finishes the whole drink in the cup.

"You were really thirsty, huh?" I commented.

"Oh. Uh, yeah. I kinda forgot how easily hungry and thirsty I could get." He was scratching the back of his head. "A-Anyway, how did I do?"

"You were alright, but you and Mr. Cedric both forgot to do the same thing." I pointed my finger towards the swan folded napkin. "You forgot to place that onto your lap."

"Oh. I thought that was a Decor." He said.

"That's exactly what Mr. Cedric said when he made the same mistake." I was trying not to laugh, but I could feel the ends of my lips curling up slowly.

"O-Oh. Y-Yeah. He did say something about that. He he he..." He was drifting off.

"It's alright. At least you remembered most of the things on your first try at hand."

"I guess that's true." He said as he picks up his other cup filled with orange juice and starts drinking it down like he hasn't drunken in days.

"I see that I need a larger serving for you if ever I want you to join me for meals from now on."

"*Cough*." He almost chokes in his drink. "S-Sorry about that. *Cough* It's just that the food is really good, you know."

"Oh gosh. Sorry to make you choke. Well, I could try to make the meal for us some time."

"You can cook, Princess?"

"Yes. I used to cook meals for my Mom and I before I became a Princess." I took out my pocket watch in my hidden pocket. "We've got twenty minutes left before midnight. I'll escort you back to Mr Cedric's workshop."

"You don't have to do that." He said quickly. "It's getting too late for a princess like yourself. You need as much sleep as you can get for tomorrow. I'll just head back on my own."

"Are you sure? You won't get lost?"

"I'm sure. I've memorized most of this place like it was part of my own home." I tried to insist.

"But I'd like to see Mr. Cedric." I added. "After all, I want to talk to him personally as well, even if it's just for a few moments."

I exhaled deeply. "Alright, alright. I should tell you though that when he does come back he might be pretty worn out."

"It's fine." I said as I excitedly got out of my chair and placed the napkin onto the table. "Let's go."

"What about the table?" He stands up.

"Violet will come later to tidy up." I placed both my hands behind me. "C'mon." I said as I made little twirls.

"Be careful, Princess." He was a little panicked. "You're really energetic for someone who has to go a Ball at school tomorrow.

"I'm just excited whenever we have a new guest around." I giggled.

"Do you need to go attend morning classes? I thought that's the schedule for all of the students during weekends."

"Did Mr. Cedric tell you that, too?" I looked at sideways while walking forward.

"I-It's common knowledge that all the princes and princesses of each kingdom who goes to attend the Royal Preparatory Academy go very early in the morning, especially during weekends. There are some books about it back in Sorcery school's library."

"Ooh. I wonder how many books are in the Sorcery school's library? Must be full of ancient magic and scriptures of the past." I kept walking head on.

"Y-Yeah. About more than half actually." He replied. "The other half are on improved spells and potions."

"Interesting. Maybe you could teach me a few whenever it's your turn to come back here. I'm Mr. Cedric's apprentice, you see, and I don't think he'll be able to have enough time to do so if he has to work very hard over at Mystic Meadows." I stopped to look at him in the eyes.

"I'll...try. I'm not very good of a teacher as well as a student."

"Don't worry. I'm a fast learner."

"Don't say that I didn't tell you so." He says.

Just as I was about to walk on and ask another question when I tilted my head to look back, only to see Jaime standing, looking up and through one of the large opened curtained windows. He did the same thing earlier when I left my dinner to look for him and found him looking at the moon so motionlessly. I slowly walked over to him. His expression was just the same as the first time.

"Of all the times I've been walking around, this is one of the few times I've actually stopped to look up at the sky and admire the moon." He says in a mono-tone. "I wonder if I'll get to see the moon and stars like this when that time comes."

"When what comes, Jaime?" I asked.

"Hm?" He turns to look at me as if he just broke out from a trance. "Oh. Um, when the time comes...that I have to go take my, uh, finals, you know. Not many sorcerers gets to, uh, go out of their designated workshops, due to our busy schedules."

"Oh. I see. Mr. Cedric does stay indoors a little too often, and he only comes out when he needs to get ingredients from the garden and such. Maybe I should take him out on a stroll every once in a while."

"Uhhh...right. Let's just go. I wouldn't want to keep Mr. Goodwyn waiting for us since he'll be the one opening the portal." He starts walking ahead.

"Right." I followed behind.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the foot of the steps leading up towards the door of Mr. Cedric's workshop. Jaime went ahead on the stairs and I followed suit. When we got to the door Jaime searched into his sleeves.

"Don't worry. Mr. Cedric always keeps a spare...key?..." I trailed off when I opened the hidden compartment in one of the gargoyle statue's toes and found it was empty. "Where'd it go?"

"I took it earlier and slipped it with my wand in my sleeves." He said with a smile as he slipped out the key from his sleeve. "It's usually where we keep things we wouldn't want to loose. I didn't think that there were others who were allowed to use it so I kept it for safe keeping."

"Ah. Okay." I tried to smile it off.

I never actually got permission to know where the key was hidden, so the way Jaime said it made me feel guilty. I better ask Mr. Cedric about the key when he gets back.

We entered into the workshop and closed the door. Just as I turned around I noticed the fallen cauldron that was on the table earlier was still on its side and the contents were still scattered all over the floor.

"Oh no. Mr. Cedric didn't get to clean up this mess. I'll just-"

I was about to go get some cleaning supplies when I felt a hand on my shoulder and stopped.

"Mr. Cedric said not to let anyone touch the mess, that's why I decided to lock the door. He will be the one to clean it up as the contents are dangerous at the moment."

"What do you mean 'dangerous'?"

"When Mr. Goodwyn and I came here it was filled with smoke all over place. We tried to extinguish the smoke as fast as we could, but the contents got contaminated with the smoke. A special cleaning spell can only be conjured up by certified sorcerers, like Mr. Cedric and Mr. Goodwyn, so I wouldn't want to know what would happen if you got any of that liquid on yourself." He says and slowly lets go of my shoulder.

"Oh. I never knew about that. I really do need to catch up on my apprenticing." I furrowed my brows together.

"I'm sure you'll catch up. You've got talent. Why, I could see it in you, Princess." He says with his arms widely open. "The way you've held your wand back in the room at the Dressmaker's, it's like you were made to have the wand in your hand. It's full of confidence, but with grace! The words chanted out were gentle, but strong in command. Even if you can't become a sorceress, being a Queen is your best bet. Take it from me, I am never wrong from what I see in people."

"Okay. I'll take your word for it." I smiled from ear to ear.

"Princess Sofia." He looks at me as he held out his hand to me. "I do hope we'll get along well in the next six months of my stay here."

"Of course we will." I firmly took his hand and shook it. "Not only in these coming six months, but in the future as well."

"I..." His tone suddenly changed. "I hope so, Princess." He lets my hand go.

Just as I was about to ask him a small rainbow swirl appeared next to us all of a sudden, and it grew bigger and bigger in size. When it stopped growing a shoe came through and stepped onto the stoned floor of the workshop, along with the rest of the body. It was Mr. Goodwyn.

"Are you ready to go, Ce-" Mr. Goodwyn stops as he sees me. "Oh, Princess Sofia. It's good to see you again." He bows.

"Hello." I curtsied. "It has been awhile, hasn't it, Mr. Goodwyn? How have you been?"

"I'm doing great." He takes a glance at Jaime and back to me. "Or at least I know I am."

"Jaime told us everything. I do hope that you aren't too exhausted."

"H-He did?!" Mr. Goodwyn was in shock. "W-W-What did he say to you all?"

"He said that you needed Mr. Cedric's help in medicating the other seniors who got affected by the illness that has been spreading around lately. How are they doing by the way? Do we need to send some medical supplies or-"

"Ah no, no, no, no. They're doing alright." He looked deeply relieved for some reason. "Although we're not as quick and nimble as we used to be, but we're doing alright on our own pace. Don't worry too much. If the time comes that we really need some assistance, I'll be sure to contact you and your father, Princess Sofia.."

"Alright then. By the way, did you personally came here just to pick Jaime up? Where's Mr. Cedric?"

"He's on the way, Princess." He answers me and turns to Jaime. "C'mon. My wife's waiting for you to help her with some of the food, Jaime. Go through the portal now."

"O-Of course, Mr. Goodwyn, Sir."

Jaime started running towards the portal, but stopped in his tracks and turns around to face me.

"I shall see you tomorrow, Princess." He bows with both arms on his sides.

"See you later, Jaime." I started waving.

I watched as he stood up and walks through the portal. I put down my hand and stared right at the portal, waiting for Mr. Cedric to come through.

"Princess Sofia." Mr. Goodwyn came closer to me. "What do you think of Jaime? I hope he wasn't too much trouble."

"Oh no. He wasn't any trouble at all. He's very polite and wise, and he really respects Mr. Cedric as much as I do. Although it would've been nice if he came earlier, maybe he could've ate dinner with us." I turned to face Mr. Goodwyn. "I do wish he could be our Royal Sorcerer as well, seems like he and Mr. Cedric would make a great team."

"That's for His Majesty to decide, Princess. Traditionally we only follow the offspring of the present sorcerer, unless he isn't able to produce a child of his own, we would take his closet relatives who have taken up on sorcery, other than that, we'd have to grab a newly graduated sorcerer who is excellent in his studies, and will be faithfully loyal to those whom he shall serve with his magic only with good intentions. You understand what I'm saying, Princess?"

"I do. I just wish we could have them both together, that's all." I nodded.

"Stand clear everyone!" A voice spoke through from the rainbow portal.

I watched as figure steps into the workshop through the portal, and sure enough it was Mr. Cedric standing right before my eyes.

"Hm?" He notices me. "What on earth are you still doing here, Princess?"


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: **Sofia The First Belongs to Disney._

_Comments From the Author:_

At the moment...I'm still stressed out 'cause my daughter has been getting sick with sipon and coughing (flu and cough)...but I managed to make last minute corrects in this second part...hopefully it's alright...

Most of the updates are on my DeviantArt, Blogger, and probably YouTube pages, so be sure to check them from to time...hopefully my brain hasn't been totally wrecked by SpringTrap...I still haven't succeeded in surpassing the 5th night! ArGH!

Once I do finish Cedric's side of the story and when the votes on my poll has finally gathered enough numbers to start off another side series, then I'll move on and start getting bashed and hated for not doing other series...UGH!... I don't even know what I'm trying to type here!

Another reason why I wanted release Cedric's side first, is because I wanted to show everyone first how my brain works and how my stories usually run and end up...I don't want other people's expectations to be/get ruined just because I won't be able to meet them...if you understand what I mean...

Anyways...I'm still not sure how many chapters will there be since I'm still in the middle of it all...the PRESSURE!...so If you'd like to see a different pairing after Ced-Fia...please vote your choice of pairing found on my profile page...if you do not have a FanFiction account...you can leave your choice in my Twitter...Deviant Art...Blogger...or on my Youtube Account...I will be accepting these votes until the end of September this year...Yes...You've got a lot of time to get your friends or acquaintances (who likes and knows the STF series that is) to vote for your next favorite pairing for me to write...the highest votes will be the next pairing series for me to write after Ced-Fia...Remember..._VOTE VOTE VOTE_!

Here's a list of my social accounts...

Youtube: Natnarf1 (With a Cedric picture)

Deviant Art : Natnarf

Blogger: Natnarf1

Ello: natnarf

Twitter: NatNarf01

Well...I won't keep you guys any longer...

Remember...My next Preview of the next chapter or part will be posted in my Deviant Art and/or Blogger, on the 11th of every month...

Happy reading everyone! Enjoy!~

Until then...

_This is Natnarf..._

_Signing Off!~_

* * *

_Cedric's POV_

I tried my best to fake my reactions, hopefully I haven't and won't blow my own cover.

"I wanted to see you before I turn in for the day, Mr. Cedric. It's good that you're still in one piece." The Princess says with a smile, but quickly turns into a straight line. "Where's your robe? I thought sorcerers never go anywhere without their robes on."

"Oh." I was starting to get all shaky but tried my best to calm down. "H-Hold on." I said as I looked back and forth between father, the Princess and at myself.

I skimply walked towards the curtains, where my coat rack was hidden behind, grabbed my golden robe off of the coat rack and put it on. Calmly. I took out the Elder wand from its box and swiftly slid it up into my right sleeve, then I grabbed the ends of the gold belt attached behind my robe to tie in the front as I came walking out to reunite with the both of them.

"I must've left my purple robe back there with mommy." I said while trying to calm down my fingers from fumbling with the belt. "How forgetful of me."

"Oh. What's this?" Father said as he came over to have a touch at my robe.

"This was made by the Princess." I said as I finished tying the knots on my belt. "I received it just before you and Jaime arrived to extinguish the smoke in here earlier."

"I thought he deserved one, after all of the hard work he has done for me. I'm glad that it didn't get caught or damaged in the smoke. Even magic wouldn't be able to restore it to its former texture if it got caught and destroyed. I'd better head on to bed. I'm glad nothing bad happened to you, Mr. Cedric. At least I got to see you. You too, Mr. Goodwyn. May you both have a pleasant night." She curtsies.

We both watched as she leaves the workshop and closes the door. We then waited for a few more moments before we turned to face each other.

"Ssssssiiiiiiiigggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh..." and I let out the most heaviest breath of my life as I magically brought a chair over with the Elder wand and lazily sat down in it.

"That, uh, was quite a deep one, Cedric." Father commented.

"You're telling me. It was really hard trying to be someone else you're not. The whole Royal family kept on asking question after question, and I had to think up all of the answers on the spot without messing up my back story. Any more of that and my brain will blow into smithereens!"

"Cedric dear! You forgot this!"

I turned to look at the portal and saw mother coming through, holding my purple robe and my long cape.

"I was scared for a moment back there. It's too bad I don't have a spell to ease or sooth the pain you went and will be going through from now on." She said as she hands me my purple robe.

"I thought I was going to die back there." I said as I recalled my experience back at Mystic Meadows.

When I gave the Princess my last bow and went through the portal, my whole body went aching just as I passed through. I could feel all of the blood in my body was pumping hard, as if all of my veins were going to burst or pop inside of me at any moment, even my head was thumping hard and loud like drums. I was trying to walk as best as I could to get a little farther away from the portal, but I only managed to take three stubby steps before my knees collapsed and I completely fell to the ground as I felt like screaming my lungs out. Mother was just nearby when all of that happened and managed to conjure up a giant Magic Bubble, big enough to put me inside of it before I yelled out my heart.

Mother's Magic Bubble was a little different since it was sound proof, so I could make as much noise as I wanted or needed to, without having to let anyone else hear me doing so. You can't imagine how much screaming I made inside that bubble. I have never screamed and yelled my heart out so much in my whole life, I think I might end up with a sore throat in the morning.

"Careful in there, Cedric!" Mother talks to me through the bubble. "You wouldn't want to harm your hair like what happened during your school reunion!"

"That...wasn't...my...fault! ARGHHH!" I tried to speak through the pain.

Mother was mentioning the time where it was a few years after I graduated from Sorcery school and before Princess Sofia and the Queen joined the Royal family. I went to our class's school reunion when Greylock, a former schoolmate of mine who acted more of a Jester rather than a Sorcerer, now serving as a Royal Sorcerer for King Magnus, decided to try and pull a fast one on me and burned part of my hair. If it was any normal fire my hair would've grown back to its natural color, black. However, Greylock had to conjure up a fire made completely from magic, which ended up burning my hair into a greyish color. What's worse is that the color of my front bangs became permanent, so no matter how much I try to get different hair treatments, it will never return my hair color back to the way it was. Telling the Royal family that the hair was magically done due to an amateurish failure, was just a cover up over my own embarrassment.

What seemed like forever was just only a few seconds, and at the last second, the pain had completely vanished. I was able to open my eyes like normally, and while I was still on all fours I checked myself to make sure that I wasn't drugged or passed out, or hallucinating in any way. I almost forgot that I was still in a magic bubble when mother knocked against the bubble.

"Are you alright, Cedric?" Mother said worryingly. "Brace yourself. I'll disburse the bubble."

And with a whiff of her wand, the bubble popped and I landed on my rear end. Not very well prepared to make a glorious fall for someone who was on all fours and about a few feet off the ground.

"I should've placed a cushion or something large and soft to catch your fall. Sorry dear." She quickly came over and helped me up on my feet.

"That's really, very intensifying, mommy."

"And you were screaming a lot, too. Did it really hurt that much?"

"It hurts so much that it just might the experience from the underworld that everyone's looking for." I tried my best to pat off any dirt or dusts stuck onto my when I fell to the ground.

"Well, I do hope you won't have to go through even more of that pain in the next coming days and months while your father and I are finding the solution your problem. Now go! Your father is killing time by chatting with Princess Sofia, who is still waiting for your return." She pats my on my arm.

"Thank you, mommy." And I quickly went through the portal, which was just before I arrived and greeted the princess off.

I carefully took off my gold robe and wore on my purple one.

"Where did you get that nice gold robe?" Mother comes over to me and feels the gold robe in my hand. "And it's really well made."

"You also think so, too, Winifred?" Father answered. "The princess made it."

"What?!" Mother had an obvious surprised look on her. "What a very talented girl that princess is. Always surprises me eveytime."

"And imagine that, it only took her a couple of hours to finish it." I said as I took my gold robe to be hung on the rack behind the curtains.

"You can't be serious. That whole robe done in a couple of hours?! It would take me at least a week."

"Let's just say you're not quite as young as you used to be, Winifred- Ah! My back!" Father puts his hand to where he felt his bone crack in the back.

"Who's not quite as young as they used to be?" Mother said in a neutral tone.

I ignored their small bickering and let down my curtains. Then I see mother walking towards me.

"I've got to go now, Cedric-kins. You'd better get a good night's rest, alright?" She gives my cheek a good pinching, something I could never say no to.

"Y-esh, m-ua-thur." I spoke as best as I could. "I we-aill!"

She gently releases my newly sore cheek and goes through the portal, back to Mystic Meadows.

"You know, son." Father spoke up from behind. "As much as I don't want to say this, but it's best not to get too friendly with the princess. I admire her for being wise and humble, but without caution, she may will be the very one who will cause your life span to shorten quicker than anything else."

"Father, she's just a princess. I'm sure nothing will happen even having with her around me all day...no, half a day."

"That not what I'm worried about-"

"I'm sure whatever you're worried about will pass, father." I cut him off. "Look, I'm really tired. I would like to at least get enough amount of sleep if I were to match my energy with these young royals, especially the energetic princess herself."

He was about to speak up again, but he stops and lets out a deep breath. He gives me a good patting on my shoulder and walks through the portal. I stood and watch as the portal closes off moments after father passes through it.

I managed to clean up all of the mess on the floor and went straight to bed after that. I've never had a better sleep since I last slept in my own bed at my parents' old home before they retired and moved to Mystic Meadows.

Not many knows of this, but my sleeping chamber, my bedroom, is actually downstairs, just below this workshop. No one knows about it because I wanted to have my privacy, at least when it comes to sleeping. I've already vowed to dedicate my whole life and services into serving His Majesty, King Roland II, and the Kingdom of Enchancia, that I should at least deserve to my have own privacy, to sleep in a peaceful environment, where I could relax, and also have a chance to collect and sort out my thoughts, away from the world of politics and strings of problems waiting for me to solve.

The next morning I decided to get up earlier than I usually would and went straight up to my workshop. As I arrived at the top of the stairs, the shining gold robe that was hanging on the coat rack by the curtains caught my attention. I gently touch the sleeves and run my hand down from the shoulders.

"To last as a Royal Sorcerer is one thing, but to last long enough to be able to beat this curse..." I slowly looked down at my hand as it made its way to the end of the sleeve. "...Is this something that I can triumph over before it's too late?"

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"That knock." I grimly frowned. "Come in!"

The door opens and Princess Sofia comes inside, with a smile as usual.

"Good morrow, Mr. Cedric."

"Why on earth are you here so early in the morning?" I raised a brow. "Are you here with a magical emergency?"

"Nope. I'm just here to visit you, and to kill time before you go off and exchange places with Jaime." She says.

"R-Really?" I was taken aback. "Well...uh..."

I tried to divert my eyes somewhere until I saw a few pieces of leaves on my working table.

"Ah! W-Would you like to have some tea? A-Any requests?" I started taking out my wand to attempt brewing up a set of tea and cookies. But who in their right mind would have tea and cookies so early in the morning before breakfast?

"Oh, no thank you. I'd rather just help you while I wait for breakfast to be served. Is there anything I could do to help?"

She's just making things harder for me to move around without getting tense.

"You...uh...You could start dusting some of the books on the shelves. I know it'll start getting more dustier while I'm away."

"Okay." She whisks out her wand. "_Vestire Mutato Habitus!_" She magically changes her dress into her purple robe.

'Vestire' is dress and 'Habitus' is robe, both in Latin translation. She has learned to use words to conjure up her magic spells, which is the harder way of doing and learning magic. I, myself, can't remember most words at times, so I usually just go through a shortcut, which is just to mix words that I learned from all of my language classes; Latin, Greek, and Italian. I just mix them up to make a sense of things. It's not wrong, but it's just easier for me. I never did tell her that though, or who knows what would happen if she accidentally mixes up the words or gets them wrongly conjured when she does her spells. Still, she's doing really well for someone who's only using memorization to do her magic.

"I'll start from upstairs." She dashes right for the wooden stairs.

My staircase used to be made of stone steps and steel railings, but just like how the accident occurred yesterday, it also ended up in a horrible accident. I was trying to conjure up a spell that would make my staircase a little wider, when that young prince just had to barge in the middle of the spell. I got the words wrong, and ended up turning my staircase into a set of wooden staircase. Out of all of the children, only the prince is the most troublesome and unpredictable, except during dinner time when he is at his most vulnerable

I continued to set up everything in order, which was something I'd never ever do in my entire life, so that when I change into Jaime, at least I'll have everything in order and prepared. I tidied up the test tubes, the flasks and the Chemistry set away from nosy young royals who can't keep their hands away to themselves from unknown interesting and dangerous looking objects and trinkets, and the other spare wands are kept in a cylinder container and locked away in the drawers of my working table. It was also at this time that the Princess finally came back downstairs, her cleaning towel filled with lots and lots of dirt and dusts. How embarrassing.

"I finished half of the shelves upstairs, Mr. Cedric." She climbs down the last few steps of the wooden steps.

"Oh? J-Just leave the towel down." I pretended to still be sorting out the clutter from my drawers.

"Okay." She says. "_Habitus Mutato Vestire!_"

I looked a little to the side, and watched her perform the spell on her back into her gown. Not bad conjuring, for a princess. Then she notices me looking and I quickly turned back to face my desk.

"I'll be going now." She says.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Take care." I said, quickly.

"Mr. Cedric?" She asks.

"What is it?" I was starting to get impatient.

"When did you get back your purple robe? I thought you left it back at Mystic Meadows."

"Huh?" I recalled last night's conversation and was starting to panic a bit. "Oh, uh, um, I got it back, uh, last night, mother came here and brought me my robe back just after you left. Is it really that big of an issue, Princess?"

"No. I was just curious. I'll try to come back early to see you off."

I snapped my fingers to open the door for her, and close it immediately after she leaves the room.

"That princess." I shook my head in disbelief. "I do hope that father gets here a little early later." And I let out a breath. "Now to do my laundry...wherever they've gone to."

* * *

_Miss Nettle' POV_

"How much more of this are we suppose to do? I'm already exhausted!" Rosie whined and complained.

"This is the last round, for today. We'll go again two days after." I continued flying about while holding Rosie out around my arm and letting her scatter her infinitive rose petals with a spell I've put on her to be able to do so.

"Two days after?! When will I ever get a break from scattering petals?"

"At least you're not the one who's doing all the flying."

"Hello?! Spreading leaves and vines is one thing, but to scatter petals all over the place, is like me asking you to pull out all of your hair and scatter them everywhere, to the point where you'll be bald!"

"Oh, shush!" I stopped flying forward. "If we get this right, we'll be able to execute our plan. And this time, I am very well prepared."

"Uh, explain me what's your plan again." Rosie asks me. "Just so I won't mix up the order of such."

"Alright, alright." I let out a breath. "First, we scatter enough rose petals and buds in the air all around the Enchancian Kingdom and some of the other locations nearby. Then, we wait to see if at least anyone, and I mean anyone, to start erupting emotions of anger and jealousy. It can't just be one of them, it has be be both emotions erupting at the same level and time."

"Okay. But how's that going to be of any use for your plan on getting back that Princess's amulet? It's not like we're going to wait until she gets both emotions at the same time. She's always calm and cheerful."

"Plus wise, too." I murmured with mild anger. "But we don't. We're going to wait for someone else to trigger both emotions, especially in this season and time."

"Why?"

"Use your brain a little, Rosy. It's the season where young love starts blooming everywhere, whether old or young, single or married."

"Oh. So we're going to make some couples hate each other or something?"

"Not exactly. In every attempt that a young man and a young woman tries to get each others' attention, there's bound to be someone, a third party that is, who is going to get really jealous 'cause they also like one of the two people. When that happens, that jealous person will attract all of your petals and we'll be able to find them. And when we do..."

"We'll be able to take over that person's heart and trap them inside of my vines, fully barricaded and protected from any powerful wands apart from yours." Rosie followed on my sentences.

"Exactly. Then we'll have the Royal family come to us and have the Princess trade her amulet for the life of the hostage. Hahahahaha!" I laughed as loudly as I could.

"Oh, you are so brilliant! And smart!" Rosie commented.

"I know. Now. Let's finish up on our round today."

"Alright." Rosie says enthusiastically and continues to spread, or shed, her petals everywhere.

* * *

_Sofia's POV_

I was trying my best to eat my breakfast as normal as I could, but it wasn't easy, with the recollection of Dad's proclamation from yesterday, and with James facing me directly from the opposite side of the table. I was not allowed to leave the table early during breakfast, unless there was a guest or an important matter needed my attention, and I wish any of them could come through the doors to save me right at this moment.

"This porridge is really good today." Dad said out in delight. "Not too sweet, not lacking of in taste, it's just right."

"I agree. Who made this, Baileywick?" Mom asks while stirring her spoon in the bowl.

"I believe it was Violet." Baileywick said, who was standing between Mom and Dad.

"Could we have this for tomorrow's breakfast again? And tell her to maybe add in some blueberries or any fruit suitable with this." Dad gave an order.

"Of course, Your Majesty. I'll be sure to let her know." Baileywick takes out a notepad and jots it down. "Any other requests, anyone?"

"Could I have strawberries in mine?" Amber asks.

"Certainly." Baileywick jots down quickly.

"I'd like to have blueberries in mine, please." Mom follows.

"Of course." He jots down again.

"Is it possible to have chocolate in mine?" James follows.

"We'll see. I'll just put it in." Baileywick scribbles quickly. Then he looks at me. "And you, Sofia? Would you like to request anything?"

"I'd like to have honey and raisins, please." I said. "Thanks."

"Ah. Excellent choice. And one of my favorite choice of flavors, too." He scribbles and puts the notepad into his pocket.

"It's nice to have something like this once and a while. I wonder who invented such a simple, and yet a delicious thing?" Dad tires his best to lighten up the mood, and hoping one of us would engage into the topic.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Come in." Baileywick says aloud.

The doors opened and it was Suzette who came through the doors.

"What is it, Suzette?" Baileywick asked.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your breakfast, Your Majesties." She says as she reaches us and curtsies. "The young prince from the Kingdom of Tangu, Prince Zandar, is here. Should I have him wait in the hall or let him in?"

"Let him in, Suzette." Mom answers first. "Maybe he would like to join us for breakfast."

"Please do that, Suzette."

"Of course, Mr. Baileywick. Right away, Queen Miranda." Suzette gives a quick bow and went to fetch Zandar outside.

"What's Zandar doing here so early in the morning? Did you ask him to come over?" Amber points her spoon at James.

"No. We didn't make any plans for today. At least, I think we didn't." James tries to remember.

"Maybe he's come to ask us for something?" I added.

"So early in the morning? Must be important." Mom says.

"Here he is, Your Majesties." Suzette announces at the doors and curtsies on the spot. "Please go right in."

"Thank you, kindly." A voice says kindly and well mannerly tone.

Through the door enters Zandar as he gives her a bow and walks towards the family table. Then he stops and gives a big bow visibly in front of everyone.

"Good morning, everyone." And stands back up. "I do hope my sudden presence wasn't too unexpected."

"Oh no. Not at all, young Zandar." Dad attempts to stand when he tries to put down his spoon.

"Please don't stand, Your Majesty." Zandar raises his hands in attempt to stop Dad from standing up. "A King deserves to eat his breakfast without a second of disturbance."

"Have you had your breakfast, Zandar? We could prepare you some porridge, unless you preferred something else." Mom asks.

"Oh, no thank you, Queen Miranda. I've already eaten. I actually came to ask for Princess Sofia's help. I hope it's not too much of a bother." Zandar puts both his arms behind him.

"It's no problem at all. Are you finished yet, Sofia?" Dad asks me, with the usual kind eyes.

"Just one spoon left." I said as I scooped up my last spoon of porridge and shoved it into my mouth, with grace. "Done."

"You came for Sofia? How unusual." Amber continues to eat her porridge.

I dabbed my mouth clean and stood up, but my eyes accidentally went and met with James', who was the most surprised. It's a well known fact that he and Zandar are the best of friends that anyone has seen throughout the years, but this was the first time that he wasn't called for.

"James." Zandar goes over to him and pats on the shoulder. "Let's chill out later."

"Uh, sure."

They both high-fived each other above their heads, which is their special handshake.

I walked behind Mom and Dad's chairs and just reached to Amber's side when shifted slightly sideways to meet with my eyes.

"Is there something going on between the two of you?" Amber looks at me.

"Nope. I don't even know what he wants." I lied.

"I-"

"I hope not." James cuts Amber's words with a mono tone and scoops up a large portion of his porridge.

"I wouldn't do that, James." Zandar says.

James shoves the whole scoop into his mouth and swallows it straight down his throat. His face quickly turned red as he stands up holding his throat with both of his hands and starts running and jumping about around the dinning room.

"HOT! HOT! HOT! HHHHOOOOTTTT!" He yelled.

"Oh boy." Zandar commented.

"I think it's best that you both leave this to us." Dad ushered Baileywick and nods his head at the doors.

Zandar and I quickly followed Baileywick out of the room and he closes the dinning room's doors once we were out, but the chaos going on inside was still audible on the outside.

"HOT!" James yelled.

"JAMES!" Dad yelled.

"CALM DOWN, JAMES!" Mother raised her voice.

"UGH! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO SUCH STUPID THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE, JAMES?!" Amber lastly.

The sounds of trashing still continues.

"I almost feel sorry for him." Zandar chuckled.

"Me too." I followed.

"Well I don't." Baileywick said. "I did remind him every time to watch how he eats. I guess I better go back in there to help. If you need anything at all, Sofia, you know how to get me."

"Okay." I said.

We watched him quickly open the doors and swiftly shutting the doors behind him.

"I'LL HELP GET YOU DOWN, JAMES!" Baileywick also yelled as I imagined all sorts of chaos behind the doors.

"...What a weird way to start the day." Zandar said.

"You tell me." I said. "So, what brings you here?

"Right. Remember you promised to help me with Hildegard?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. Um..." I looked around. "Let's head to the library. No one will bother us there."

"Alright."

We arrived at the library in no time, and sure enough no one else was around. Just to make sure, we decided to go for the table at the end of the room so that in case anyone comes in, we'll be able to quiet down quickly.

"It's quite a nice library you've got here, Sofia."

"Most of them belonged to Dad when he was still studying in Royal Prep. I hope to fill in with some of mine as well when the time comes." I said. "But I'm pretty sure you've got a lot more back at your place."

"Sure." He answered. "Mostly about politics. I do wish we had more books though, like ones just to read for leisure time. It makes my eyes sore just looking at the title of the same genre from the book binds."

"Which is what you're aiming for anyways, right? To help Hildegard and all."

"I know." He leans against the chair with his arms behind him to support his head. "But I do have to take a little break every now and then. Anyways, let's go back to the real problem."

"Oh, right." I got too excited about the library that I almost forgot about our real purpose for coming here. "So, uh, you managed to get partnered with Hildegard for tonight's school Ball-dance, right?"

"Yup. I was just lucky though since she didn't get to choose whom she wanted her partner to be." He paused for a second. "I think it would've been Hugo if Clio wasn't there."

"Right." I almost rolled my eyes. "And what have you both decided for your costumes?"

"Well..." He was linking each fingers together, pushing them apart and back together like a bouncing magnet. "...the truth is, she decided on her own to being a teal colored Mermaid. 'Dress version of course!' she said, without telling me anything else on the subject." He tries to mimic her voice and gestures. "I'm not really into such things and ideas, so maybe you could help me out here."

"How can I help? Sewing? Measurements?"

"No, not like that." He takes out a few pieces of paper and a small box of colored crayons. "Sorry about the crayons. It was the nearest thing I could reach on my way out of my bedroom."

"It's alright." I said as I opened the box of crayons. "I can color the design with the colors this way than using a quill feathered pen." And I took up the teal colored crayon. "So the theme must be teal and Ocean, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you...still need something to cover your head though? I'm not really well read up about customs of other countries and kingdoms." I said while drafting out a body outline on the paper.

"Basically, I must have my hair hidden at all times, but I could always let down half my hair, no more than that though. Hold on, I'll try to fix it up so that you'll understand what I mean. It may take a while"

He stands up and quickly goes behind of the tall isolated book shelves to fix his hair. I guess it's also a custom not to let other people see your hair when you're fixing it. I decided to randomly take a book off a shelf just beside me and began deep reading. It was a book about the different types of roses, something I didn't expect to pick out of many different amazing genres available to choose. Then again, I only blindly and randomly picked it off from the shelf, so I might as well read it than waste more time choosing another one and end up not reading anything at all.

It took about five minutes before he finally came back out again, but I was reading a random book off the shelf that I didn't see him already standing next to me.

"How's this?" He asked

I looked up, and there he was, with his turban still wrapped partially on his head, half of his hair was let out. It was quite long actually, some hair was left out hanging behind him until the level of where his belly button is, and in the front were two slightly parted hair sitting on the chest until just below his armpits. It was pretty shiny, too.

"What do you think? It should've been longer, like until here, but my mother had a hard time controlling my hands from pulling on my hair when I was still a little toddler." He said while putting his hand horizontally against his hips to show me the supposed length of his hair.

"It's...It's perfect, Zandar." I clasped my hands together. "You can use a teal colored handkerchief to wrap your head like how you did when we used to dress up and play as pirates together as children." I immediately drew out a sketch. "Would you like to wear a full top or-"

"I'm alright with anything below my head, just don't leave me bare naked." He follows what I'm saying and raised a brow at the end.

"Right. Gotcha!" I said and continued scribbling my design and notes. "You can go and fix back your hair while I draw out the design."

"Nah. I'll just leave it be. So that when I get back I won't have to redo my hair all over again. I'll just have a read at some of the books in here." He says s he starts to go off.

"Okay."

I returned to my draft and began to design out the costume. I mostly used the teal colored crayon in the whole design. I colored out the handkerchief headband, sketched his hair casually parted and laying over and in front of his shoulders down his chest, and I wrote down some notes on the side of the paper the option of having a choker or a necklace. He could probably wear an opened vest just so he wouldn't be totally bare on the upper part of his body, but I'll consult with him about it. His pants would still be like his own everyday ones, with an elastic waist band, but the end would an extra-wide-and low cut one, with scales-like pattern all over it. And lastly teal sequined colored covered shoes. I jotted some more notes on the side that if there was still enough time, the dressmakers could add some of the sequins randomly all over the pants to give that shiny scaly effect.

"Done!~" I held up the paper, feeling pleased with myself. "Zandar?" I called out. "Where are you?"

But there was no answer.

"Maybe he didn't hear me."

I held the paper in my hand and tried to look around the shelves, and I found him in the 'animals' section, reading in on a book titled ' _Wild Animals From Around The World_'. I guess he just he really loves exotic animals, like his pet elephant.

I slowly and quietly walked over to him, until I was inches away from him.

"You really like animals, huh?" I asked the obvious question.

"Huh?" He looks up in surprise. "Oh. How long have you been there?"

"I just got here." I said. "I called out to you earlier, but you didn't reply, so I came looking for you."

"Gosh. How embarrassing." He scratched his right temple with his finger while trying to put back the book into the shelf.

"You could borrow it you know." I said. "Just don't forget to return it back."

"Can I really?" His eyes grew big.

"Sure. I'll just tell Baileywick that I borrowed it. You can return it back anytime."

"THANKS!" He quickly gave me a large hug, and quickly removed himself. "I promise to return it back as soon as I'm done with it."

"Sure." I smiled. "Oh, here's the draft."

He calmly takes the paper and scans the drawing.

"I wasn't sure if the pants could be done in that way, which is why I wanted to show you first." I commented.

"It's a Sarouel." He said.

"A what?"

"A Sarouel. It's the name of the pants that men wear in our kingdom, like the ones I have on now." I looked at his pants that are like a jaggy-baggy style, but it wasn't as greatly loose as the one I drafted. "The one you drew is a more loose type, with a really drop-crotch design." He faces the sketch to me and points at the pants part to me. "I think this is a really good design."

"I wasn't sure on one thing." I quickly followed up. "Do you have to wear something on top?"

"Usually it's alright not to wear anything on top, but this vest is fine." Then his eyes goes over to the part where I jot down some notes. "Necklace or choker? I think I do have a loose gold choker with a teal gem in the middle."

"That will go perfectly well with your costume." I said. "Oh, do you think you could also ask someone to make you a custom trident? Preferably a gold colored one."

"I'll see what I can do with that. Anything else I need to take note of?"

"Yes." I pointed at the feet on the sketch. "Try to get green socks or a way to cover your skin between your pants and your shoes, so that it'll look like it's really connected, like a real tail."

"Alright."

"Well, if nothing else, let's go pack up your crayons. You need time to try them on, too." I said as I started walking back to our table.

"Thanks again, Sofia. You're a really good friend."

"Anytime. Just promise me one thing." I make a sudden halt and turned around with my index finger out.

"W-What?"

I then gave a big smile.

"Promise me that you will give it your best, no matter if Hildegard or the others don't approve if you, as long as you give your best to impress Hildegard and still have a great time at the Ball."

"That, I can do." He gives an approved casual salute with his right hand.

We left the library shortly after he got his other papers and crayons from the table. While on the way after we got of the elevator we had to pass the dinning room just to go the main doors. The doors of the dinning room were widely opened, and inside we see many of the staffs inside, cleaning. We decided to have a look inside.

"What on earth happened here?" Zandar's eyes were more wider than earlier.

The large table was tipped over on its side, the legs facing in our direction, while the chairs were scattered everywhere on the floor. I walked to see the other side, and sure enough, the large table cloth and the carpet were spilled with this morning's bowls of porridge.

"Oh my." Zandar commented.

"This can't all be James' doing." I looked at the mess once more, still trying to absorb all of this.

"I'm afraid it is, Sofia."

We bother turned to see Amber at the door.

"He's just a bit too much to handle that both his tongue and his gums have gone numb." She walks in between us. "Mom and Dad also some of their food spilled onto their clothes. I was just lucky that Baileywick shielded me from any of the flying food. I don't think I'll have any for the next few days."

"I think I won't have any either." I commented.

"Well, I'd better get going, Ladies." Zandar says as he bows. "I'll see ya both later."

"Farewell." Amber waves gracefully.

"See ya later." I waved widely, casually.

We both watched until he goes through the door and disappears.

"So, what did he come for, Sofia?" Amber quickly asks me.

"Oh. He came over to ask to look up on some books, ideas for his costume since he didn't have any books on about clothes back at his."

"He's really taking this costume thing seriously." Amber hummed. "Maybe there's a costume contest being held, or a prize that he's after-"

"Ah, Amber." I cut her off. "You didn't organize any. It's just part of the dress code change that Ms. Fauna rearranged for the Ball. She annouced it to us yesterday, remember?"

"Oh...that's right." She giggles. "How silly of me...He he he."

It still sounds like she's taking it really seriously though.

"Speaking of the Ball, what time do you have to go there?" I asked her.

"I have to be there at four. 'Cause I'm not sure if the food will be enough to fill everyone's belly since the amount was only enough for a tea party."

"I think it's enough as it is, Amber." I tried to convince her.

The amount of food she had planned was considered too much for an ordinary tea party, whether for royalty or ordinary people. I should've just not asked anything at all. I tried to avert my eyes elsewhere to avoid the awkward moment, and I landed on the large cuckoo clock clock that was newly added to the room between a few months back. It was already ten minutes before twelve.

"OH NO!" I said aloud. "I'm going to miss Mr. Cedric's departure!" and started running for Mr. Cedric's workshop.

"What's the rush, Sofia? It's not like he's going to disappear forever!" Amber yelled out to me.

But I didn't bother to stop to listen for her reasoning, because trying to get there in time, is my aim right at this moment.

* * *

_Cedric's POV_

"Oh! When's father going to open up the portal?!" I said pacing back and forth.

Father was supposed to open up three minutes ago. Now I was anxiously scared of the time I have left. It's been eight minutes pass our agreed time for my rescuing. If the Princess comes over to bid me farewell, and sees me transforming on the spot, who knows what she might do, or say to King Roland.

Right at that moment, I see a small rainbow portal appear right in front of me, then it slowly gets bigger and bigger.

"Sorry about the delay, son!" I could hear father talking from the other side. "Won't take long now!"

"Where on earth were you, father? Don't you know that-"

Then I heard the doorknob starting to turn.

"Oh no! She's HERE!" I was starting to get delirious.

"Just hold on!" He said.

But the doorknob was almost finish turning. I decided and made the most hasty decision ever.

"I'm coming through, Father!"

"WHAT?! But Cedri-"

I didn't stop to listen for the rest as I took a few paces back, then I ran forward and leaped into the portal, diving head first and landed on the ground, felt myself rolling like a ball. I stopped after a couple of rolls and landed flat on my back, trying to catch my breath.

"Mr. Cedric!" I heard the Princess calling my name from the other side. "Mr. Cedric?...Oh...Did I miss him already?"

I didn't have enough time to react though as the pain in my body started to take over me.

"AHHHRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

I screamed, harder than I did last night. My head aching harder and louder than the sounds of a lighting storm, and then all hell broke loose. My couldn't hear but a painful silence, I screamed but no voice came out of my mouth, my arms and legs were pumping so much blood that I could even feel my heart about to come out, even my eyes were tearing up as I was slowly loosing vision. When I could no longer take anymore of it, the pain in my body had stopped altogether in just a flash. A couple of seconds later I could sounds of knocking nearby me. I slowly opened my eyes and gradually looked up. My vision was still teary and blurry, but I could make out the outline of my mother.

"Are you...alright, Cedri-dear?" Mother spoke slow, but concerned.

"Mu...Mother?..." I barely spoke.

"I'll let you out of the bubble."She says.

I could hear the bubble pop, but I didn't feel myself falling or anything. I opened up eyes and my vision was starting to clear up. I slowly sat up, crossing my legs, rubbed my eyes against my gloves. When I finally got a good hold of my vision, I saw mommy, crying, while holding her wand in one hand.

"Mommy? Why are you cryi-"

But she quickly lunged at me, holding me ever so tightly in her arms. The impact of her running had a little too much force that it made me fall on my back. I tried using my forearms as supporters to hold me up and steady.

...

She was crying.

"Cedric...my poor Cedric..."

It was all I could make out from her. I couldn't hear anything else 'cause of her heavy crying. Of all of the times she's given me her biggest and tightest of hugs, this one was the only one she's ever given me, with tears. I gently stroked her back to try and calm her down.

"I'm sorry, mommy." I said softly, afraid of breaking her even more. "But I have to go back. The Princess is waiting for me at the other side."

She slowly let go of me, but she was still crying.

I stood on my feet, stretching a bit here and there, being able to feel my energy and strength back into my body. Then I knelt down in front of mother an placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm willing to endure this curse for as long as I can until you and father find the cure or solution to it. 1 need you to be strong for me, mommy. Just don't give up." I said.

"Oh Cedric...It's not the same...It's just not the same..." She continues to cry against her hands as she drops my cape on the ground that was hanging on her forearm.

I stood up and slowly removed my purple robe without tearing the tight sleeves, then swiftly folded my robe and placed it next to mommy. I picked up the cape, opened and latched it to the collar of my shirt. I faced my back at her so that I wouldn't see her crying face. I couldn't afford to show tears on my face when meeting with the princess

"I'll...I'll see you later, mommy."

I walked all the way to the portal and through it without ever looking back. Once I stepped through and made it back inside the workshop, I see father and Princess Sofia chatting by a set of bookshelves to my left. They both noticed me and father quickly came over to me.

"You alright?" He whispered.

"I'm good." I noticed the dust and dirt on my sleeves. "Just a little dusty." I said as I try to pat off them off.

"Good." He smiled. "Behave nicely, alright."

"Yes, uh, Mr. Goodwyn, sir." I said

It wasn't audibly loud, but you could hear him happily laughing even his mouth closed. He faces to the Princess.

"I shall be going now, Princess Sofia."

"Take care of yourself, Mr. Goodwyn." She curtsied and waves.

He walks through the portal and it quickly shrinks in size and disappears in a flash.

"How are you, Jaime?" Sofia walks over to me. "How was your first night with everyone at Mystic Meadows?"

"Huh?" I was lost.

"You know, was everyone comfortable with you around them yet? Or were they giving you the look like you're a killer?" She explains further.

"Ah." I finally caught on. "It was...alright. Just a few 'Hello's and 'Take care of yourself' sentences. Nothing more." I quickly added.

"Oh. That's good. At least you're making progress." She said.

"Yeah...I guess so." I scratched the back of my head.

"Well then, did you have lunch yet?" She asked. "I'm supposed to join my family in a few minutes. You have to come along with me. We...all aren't on the best of terms with each other yet." She begged with her eyes.

"Why? Am I in trouble or something?" I was a little scared.

"No, you're not. It's got nothing to do with you. We're just...sorta in a fight, but I'm sure everyone will behave when they see you at the table." She added. "So could you, please? Pretty please?" She puts her hand together and begs with a smile.

I wanted to refuse, but my line of sight was drifted to her amulet as it shone in the sunlight through my windows.

"Alright, alright." I gave in. "I'll go, but only because you insisted."

"Oh, thank you, Jaime!" She says as she lunges forward and gives me a hug.

Her face was so close to mine that I thought I was going to have a heart attack, I quickly looked away, praying that it'll be over soon.

"Princess Sofia! Jaime!" A cheerful voice spoke.

We turned our heads to the source of the voice, and sure enough, it was Baileywick, standing there and smiling.

"Ooh. Baileywick!' Sofia cried out happily, still not letting me loose. "Is it lunch time already?"

"It sure is." He says. "And a 'Hello' to you as well, Jaime."

"Hello there. Bow." I said the word out since I was still in the arms of the Princess.

"Why don't you have lunch with the Princess and the rest of the family? I'm sure the King and the Queen still has a lot of curious questions to ask you." He said.

"I just said 'yes' to the Princess's invitation, so I don't think I have the right to say 'no' to you, do I?" I said.

"How wonderful." He said. "Let's get going then."

I wonder whether he was teasing me or trying to tone-warn me to lay off the Princess.

"Alright." The Princess said as she finally lets me loose.

I gave a slight massage to my upper arms. Even for her size her grip is a little painful.

I locked up the workshop with my key and slipped it into my sleeves. As we walked along the hallway with the Princess in the front, Baileywick walked beside me.

"Do forgive her, Jaime." He whispers.

"Hm?" I hummed.

"For those tight hugs she's given and will give you in the future." He says. "The family's going through an intense issue, so it might take some time before everyone's open to each other again."

"Oh." I said. "But won't it make things worse because I'm there?"

"Nonsense. You saw how the family talked to each other when you arrived at their dinner last night." He said. "They were clearly talking normally to each other, and that was after their argument in the morning. Try to encourage them again to talk for the next couple of meals, if you can."

"If I could be of any help, then I'll give it my all."

"That's the spirit, Jaime." He pats me lightly on my shoulder. "I'll be counting on you." And he gradually speeds up to catch up with the Princess.

"Easier said than done, Baileywick." I murmured to myself.

We were the first one to have arrived at the dinning room. The table was fully set up with plates and utensils. Baileywick called for one of the maids over and she arrived as she swiftly placed another set of utensils on the side where the chairs are facing the windows. That row has now three sets of plates. The Princess took the seat in the middle of the three, her chair pulled and pushed for her by one of the staffs. I choose the one with the newly added set of utensils, was given a chair on the spot stood by it. It wasn't long before the rest of the family entered the room and noticed my presence as I stood up and greeted them with a bow.

"Good morrow, King Roland."

"Ah. A good morrow to you, too, Jaime." He replied as pulls up the chair beside Princess Sofia for the Queen.

"Good morrow, Queen Miranda."

"Good morrow, Jaime." She said. "It's good to see you again." She takes and sits in the chair. The King then goes to sit in the middle solo chair.

"Thank you, My Queen." I said.

"Oh. You're here again today." It was a recognizable young female voice.

I turn see the twins walking into the room together, side by side.

"Hey! You're a sight for sore eyes!" The Prince said aloud.

"Good morrow, Prince James. Princess Amber."

"Good morrow." Princess Amber ended short. Then takes her seat on the first chair, to the King's right.

"Haha. Good morrow, Jaime!" He comes over to me and gives me three strong hard pats on my back.

Thankfully my newly built body was able to withstand the impact, or my spine would've being cracking audibly.

"I really like you, Jaime. You're a whole lot friendlier than Cedric." The Prince complimented.

"Um...thank you, Your Highness?" I wasn't sure how to respond to that as I was feeling both insulted and honorably thankful at the same time.

"And a whole lot fitter, too." She says as she sits down in her chair being pulled up by another one of the castle staffs. "Cedric would've been sent straight to the hospital if he was patted on the back like that."

Prince James went to take his seat next to Princess Amber, directly opposite of Princess Sofia. As I finally remembered to look for my Swan folded napkin and unfolded it by spreading it on my lap, I turned to see Princess Sofia's eyes wandering elsewhere, which was really unusual. It wasn't long before the other staffs brought in two large lid covered trays and placed them in the middle of the table. Two of the staffs gracefully took off each of the lid and quickly flipped it upside down to avoid dropping any of the evaporated water down onto the food. The first one was some sort of large fish, and the second one was filled with more vegetables, assorted ones at least. Both had its own large set of serving utensils; a knife and a fork, and a large pair of serving tongs.

"Wow! It's a large size Tuna." The King said in delight. "It's the best one I've seen this year."

"Which part would you all like?" Baileywick says as he takes the knife and fork in his hands.

"I'd like the head, please." The King said just as he was served.

"I'd like the tail, thanks." The Queen said just as she was served.

"I'd rather have the salad, please." Princess Amber said and another castle staff, who was by the windows on standby, went over to her side and served her some of the vegetables.

"I'd like the part after the head, please." The Prince said just as he was served.

"I'll just have the salad. Thank you." Princess Sofia said.

"Allow me, Princess." I said as I stood up.

I got the serving tongs and got of the vegetables onto her plate. Clean and quickly.

"Wow. Thanks, Jaime." She said.

"Jaime." The King called me. "Next time, just let Baileywick or the other castle servants do it. You are Sofia's guest after all."

"If I may, Your Majesty. I'm still just a part-timer hired by Mr. Cedric, so-"

"Forgive me, Jaime." Queen Miranda looks at me strongly. "Even if you're just a part-timer, you were invited by Sofia to join us. Just stay seated and be served next time she brings you here again, alright?"

"Mom." Princess Sofia whispers to the queen.

For someone like Queen Miranda, she's really got a strong personality. Unlike my own mother who always spoils me as a child due to my father's lack of trust and belief in me, you can tell that this woman is someone who is willing to do anything at the expense or at willpower to protect and love her children, whether of her own blood or not.

"Alright. I'll do as you say, My Queen." I smiled with a bow of my head.

"Don't do it because I say so, do it as if it's something naturally done, Jaime." She smiled.

"Of course." I never feel so scared, yet glad at the same time.

I sat back down, with calmer nerves than ever. I've never been told off or scolded by anyone other than my own father. I only knew a mother's love when she is calm and kind, until now. I finally met someone who is not only both calm and kind, but also strong and caring in the way of her own words. I think Sofia's got all of her strong points, which is why Sofia is kind, too kind, for my evil tastes. Once I finally find a way to return back to my normal self, I'll be able to swipe her amulet, and take over Enchancia.

"Jaime, will it be the salad, or the fish?" Baileywick asks me.

"I'll have a bit of both. Thank you very much."

I watch Baileywick swiftly takes a slice of the fish and slides it cleanly into the middle my plate, then with a slight of hand takes a portion of the vegetables with the tongs as it dances and falls around the fish.

"Wow. Nice Serve." I was impressed that let out my thoughts again.

"You're quite welcome, Jaime." He says as he carefully hands over the serving utensils to the other castle staffs on stand by.

"You know, Jaime." King Roland says and I quickly turned to look at him. "It's a real shame that you had to be in the Sorcery category. We could really use a set of strong young arms and legs in our army."

"I really can't do combating, or anything that has to do with shedding blood on a blade." I said feeling squeamish from thinking of the blood that would be pouring out from a cut. "I can only hold a cooking knife and cut meat, and that's as far as I can get."

"Why not take up martial arts? I've got a few good men who are better in fighting with their fists than their swords."

I was about to say something again, but then I remembered saying a certain speech during my earlier years. Then I looked steadily at the King's eyes.

"I, took up sorcery, to learn all of the world's spells. I learn spells so that I could conjure them for a purpose. My dream is to become a great sorcerer, where everyone would look up to me for my brilliance. But my lifelong dream is not to become someone who will be able to use magic, whether by wand or book, not to protect or take a life, but to use magic to make the world a better place for everyone of all ages, genders, sizes, races, or social status, to live in harmony." I bowed my head deeply. "So I humbly refuse, Your Majesty."

"CLAP!" "CLAP!" "CLAP!"

I looked up to see Princess Sofia clapping her hands, then Queen Miranda followed, then Prince James, and lastly Baileywick who was standing beside the prince. I was both lost and confused as I finally turned to look at the King, who was smiling.

"Um...I just refused you, Your Majesty. Why..." I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Jaime." He said. "I'll admit, I don't like sorcerers that much. I love the things that they do and make on the spot, or when they perform, but usually I think of them as Opportunists. Most of the ones I know, they tend to try and overthrow their Kings and family just to gain power and social status. Apart from Goodwyn the Great, whom I so greatly trust, and his son, Cedric, who I try to keep my faith in at most times since he has helped protect our family and the castle a number of times."

I felt my heart 'Thump' loudly on one beat at the moment of my name.

"I have not given my full and complete respect to anyone who has ever wield a wand in my presence." He stands up and takes his cup in his hand.

Then the queen and the prince also stand up and raises their cups in the air. Princess Sofia then pulls me up, takes my cup filled with juice from the table and puts it in my right hand, and raises and levels my arm up to the same height as the others. She also follows.

"You have shown me that there are still sorcerers like you who exist, only wanting to see what's best for the people and the world. Cheers!" He said,

"CHEERS!"

Everyone clinked their cups against each other, where as mine could only clink with the prince's and Princess Sofia's. Then we all sat down into our chairs.

"I don't get how this is such a big deal, Daddy." Princess Amber said. "He only refused now, that doesn't mean he won't again later on when other Kings of other kingdoms will ask for his services once he graduates."

"You know, Amber, My father also asked for Goodwyn's services when he was also on the way for graduation." The King said.

I blinked on the spot.

"It was the same for Cedric, he was going to refuse at first, but just before he graduated he came back and told me that he had changed his mind and accepted the position, even though he is the only son of Goodwyn." He continued.

It was true that I had refused, because at that time I wanted to be an adventurer instead of getting involved in politics, but then I heard from a few rumors that the Amulet of Avalor was hidden somewhere in the castle of Enchancia, which is why I had decided to stay to serve the King. Who knew that father was also asked to serve just before his graduation.

"Whatever." Princess Amber said. "It's not like we're going to be out of sorcerers to choose from. After all, Cedric's not even married, or have a girlfriend for that matter, so he doesn't have any offspring to pass on the title to. We can freely choose some other sorcerer after Cedric retires, who are far more talented and well knowledgeable on magic and spells. Maybe we could try hiring his sister for a change." She stabs into one of her lettuces and puts it into her mouth.

I was about to tell her off when I felt a hand on my right arm, I looked to see Princess Sofia slightly shaking her head at me, probably telling me not to argue with Princess Amber.

"That's true, but Cedric's still young, so there's still plenty of time for him to search for his lifelong partner, or wife if you translated that." He lets out a laugh. "Besides, we're not allowed to elect female sorceresses, it's against the rules. I'm sure there will be someone who will choose him as her husband sooner or later. "

"Which is when and who exactly, Daddy?" Princess Amber followed. "Wait. Don't answer that."

I quickly and quietly stabbed all of the vegetables into my mouth, which I amazingly swallowed in one go, shoved the whole piece of fish on my plate into my mouth, encountering no bones in my throat along the way, and flushed the cup of juice down my throat in one go. I finish off by taking my napkin on my lap and quickly, but not strongly, dabbed around my mouth to clean off any food bits left around my mouth and placed the napkin on the side of my cups.

"I-"

"I'm finished, Dad." Princess Sofia says it before I do. "May I be excused?"

"Already?" The King asks. "What's the hurry, Sofia?"

She quickly turns to look at me and my plate, then back to him.

"Jaime and I are supposed to go to Madame Collette's, to have him try on his clothes for tonight's Ball-dance. Madame Collette said that we could go to her anytime from noon onwards." She says and dabs her mouth with her own napkin.

"Well then, I do hope I get to see you in your attire before both leave, Jaime." The queen says.

"Um, of course, My Queen." I said with questioning thoughts running inside my head.

"Come on, Jaime."

Sofia pat a few times on my right shoulder with her left hand as she slowly gets up from her chair and leaves the table. I stand up and bowed to the other royals at the table, and I scurried after the princess out of the dinning room and closed the doors. When I heard the 'click' sound, I waited a few more seconds before I let out my breath.

"That was an intense lunch." I closed my eyes and slowly let go of the door handles.

As I turned around and opened my eyes, I see the princess leaning against the wall between the windows. Her head bowing a little for the sunlight to not reach her eyes.

"Princess?"

"It almost seemed like it was yesterday morning, where we were all still happily chatting with each other while having breakfast. But after that, everything has somehow turned upside down." She says as she looks up, a little teary eyed. "I wish we where still little kids. Things back then were so much easier, and happier than it is now." And her eyes drifts to the side. "It may take awhile before I could finally made a straight conversation with Dad, without trying to leave in the middle of it."

I remained silent as I waited for her to make the next move. It took a few moments before she finally moved herself away from the wall and put her usual smile on her face.

"Sorry for the wait. Let's get going."

She turns around and starts walking in the direction of Madame Collette's dressmaker's room. I followed quietly after her.

* * *

_Sofia's POV_

"Perfect fit!" Madame Collette yelled in delight. "You look splendid, Mr. Jaime."

"Uh...thanks, I guess?" He said as he tries to adjust his newly tailored clothes in front of the mirror.

We are in Madame Collette's dressmaker's room, and Jaime had just come out of the changing room, wearing his newly tailored clothing, looks very ravishing, too.

"Please around once on the spot in a circle, slowly if you please." Madame Collette raises her hand in the air and uses her index finger to make a small continuous circle in the air.

He slowly turns walks around in a small circle, like he was modeling.

"Good. Now, is there anywhere on you that you feel might be a bit too tight or too loose?" She asks again.

"No. Every part feels fine." He says.

"Now lets see you sitting down." She points towards a chair just near the doors.

He walks over and sits down with a straight back as he rests both of his arms on the arms rests.

"Good. Now try standing up and bowing, like how you'd normally greet the Royal family." She instructs again.

He stands up with ease and take a few steps towards me. He stops far enough away from me, and when he bowed in front of me, he was at least a foot in length apart from my chest.

"Ooh. You know of the proper way to bow." I said. "Good job, Jaime."

"Thank you, Princess." He says and stands back up.

"Good. Nothing's tearing." Madame Collette says as she walks forward to my side. "Let me just add one last thing."

She fiddled a little bit with the front part, which was in the way of my view, and then she backed up to my side.

"There. Nice touch, don't you think, Princess?"

I looked to see that in the front of Jaime's opened jacket, just at the foot of the collar, was connected with a gold bouquet from one side to the other. It was attached with a triangle and a swan on each end, and in between were two different lengths of gold chains. It's like something that you'd attach at the neck part of the cape, but in a more fashionable way of displaying it, normally seen on constables or head commanders.

"I had intended not to put any buttons after the base of the collar, for that chain. How do you like it, Princess?"

Jaime got curious and goes to a nearby mirror stand, checking himself out.

"It's perfect!" I clasped my hands together. "I love it!"

I walked over to him as he turns around to face me.

"Is this alright?" He asks. "I mean, for someone like me to wear such a thing. Isn't it a bit, um...I'll just be straight, a little too flashy and stylish for the likes of me?"

"Oh, no. Not at all." I said with a smile. "Everyone should deserve to wear something as good as this, even for at least once in their life. So don't feel ashamed. Wear it like you own it, Jaime. It's my welcome gift to you."

He looks at me wide eyed, then he puts his hands to his sides and bows down.

"Thank you very much, Princess." He says.

Just as I was going to reply, I saw something on the back of his head. I don't know if I've overlooked it or I just never noticed it, but he has hair tied up in a pony tail.

"You have long hair, Jaime?" I asked.

He quickly stood back up and looks at me.

"Uh, yes. I do. Why do you ask?"

"I only just noticed it." I said truthfully.

"Why not let it down, Mr. Jaime?" Madame Collette said in a suggestive tone. "I'm sure you'll look even more manlier."

Without any objections, he pulls off his hair tie and puts the hair tie around his wrist. He fiddled around with his long hair and brought it to the front in two parts. I gasped at the sight of his slight change. It was only a let down of the hair tie, but it made a huge difference. He looked a lot more buffer and muscular than just a few seconds ago.

"There. How's this?" He asked Madame Collette.

But she had gone speechless, probably had the same thought as I did and was not able to overcome the sight.

"I-I-It's great, Jaime!" I quickly tried to get his attention. "You don't even look like a student at all!"

As I spoke, I got a better look at his hair. It was only until shoulder's length, but it seemed like it was longer than that. I can't say that I've never been more astonished and surprised by anyone's hair, but I am.

"So...is that a bad thing?" He asks with a raised brow.

"Are you kidding?! It's a good thing! No, it's the best! It's Ah-Mazing!" I was almost out of control. "Everything about the way you look right now fits the agenda for tonight's Ball." I turned to look at Madame Collette, who still wasn't out of the 'spell'. "See? Her face says it all, even if she's a little...hypnotized at the moment."

"Okay." He says. "So...where's your gown, for the Ball?"

"Right." I said. "Just wait downstairs, and I'll go and get changed."

We turned to look at Madame Collette, but she was still glued to the floor.

"Bye then, Madame Collette, when you manage to regain back your control again." I said. "Let's go, Jaime."

"Is it really alright to just leave her like that?"

"I'm sure she'll eventually snap out of it."

"I hope so."

We stepped into the hallway and continued walking until we reached the main staircase. We parted ways as I went up to go to my room and he went down to wait in the lobby. I arrived at my room and saw Clover, sitting on his pillow slowly munching away on one of his carrots.

"Hiya, Clover."

"Hey, Sof!" He waved his carrot at me. "Are ya ready for the tea party?"

"It was changed to a Ball-dance instead, so I have to get dressed now." I got my dress from my wardrobe room and went behind my changing screen.

"But it's still too early to go, Sofia."

"I'm not going to go yet. I'm going to have a little dance lesson, with Jaime." I was putting my hands through the sleeves.

"Jaime? Who's that?"

"Oh. He's the new temporary Royal Sorcerer. He and Mr. Cedric will be exchanging positions for the next six months, which is until he takes his finals at Sorcery school."

"Wow. It's that time of the year already?"

"Haa. Done!~" I came out from behind the screen and twirled around a couple of times. "So, what do you think, Clover?"

"Girl!~" He said. "That's the most prettiest and glistering dress I've seen so far. Who made it?"

"I did." I said and twirled. "I put this dress together myself, I even went to the village to ask for these materials. I couldn't find any in Madame Collette's room of materials and fabrics."

"That's one totally awesome dress!" He says and puts down his carrot in his hand, or paw.

He takes a couple hops over to me and stays put, and I slowly twirled around once in front of him.

"Hey. It's not purple." He says with his head tilted.

"Yeah, I figured that I ought to have at least one dress with a different color other than purple. Does this color look weird on me?"

"No." He said enthusiastically. "It's actually suits you. I think any color would fit you just fine, Sofia, even black!"

"Hehe. Thanks, Clover. Where are Mia, Robin and Whatnaught?" I said as I scanned around the room.

"They said they were going on a stroll. I'm sure they'll be back for lunch sooner or later." He says while hoping back to his pillow and carrots, slouches in it and begins to eat again.

"Oh well. I'd better get going. Can't have Jaime waiting for me forever." I walked towards the door.

"It's better to make guys wait, Sofia." He says. "It shows what kind of person he is if he has enough patience to wait for you to get dressed."

"I still rather be punctual than be late, Clover. But thanks for the advice." I waved goodbye to him as I closed my bedroom doors.

I quickly went to the staircases down to the lobby, and there I found Jaime leaning against the wall, holding his wand doing some little magic tricks on the spot. He must've gotten bored waiting for me and was practicing his magic to kill the time.

"I'm here, Jaime." I called out to him.

"You're finally...here..."

As he looks up at me, all of the magic dust that was spraying out from his wand stopped. He had a look on his face like he has never expected something to happen for a reason, like the one Madame Collette had on her face when we left her. I walked up to him and smiled.

"Sorry it took so long. I just had to make sure that I wore on my dress properly. What do you think?"

But he didn't reply, only blinked for a couple of times. Maybe he was trying to think of a nice way of saying how he didn't like it or so.

"So...you don't like it?" I said with a frown.

"N-N-N-NO!" He shook his head. "I-I-I, Yes! Duh-I-I mean, I like it! It suits you very well. S-Sorry, Princess. I was just at a loss for words for a second."

"Hehe. That's alright." I said with a smile filled with relief. "As long as you don't freeze on the spot like Madame Collette."

"I wonder if she's alright though." He says with his finger propping his chin.

"I'm sure she'll be alright. We can always check on her later if Baileywick hasn't yet." I said.

"Oh, you're both dressed up already?"

I turned around to see both Mom and Dad walking towards us coming from the stairs, Mom on Dad's left side.

"That's a really nice gown you've got there, Sofia." Mom commented. "Did you make it yourself?"

"Yes, Mom. I got the fabrics from the tailor shop in Dunwiddy. Has such a nice touch feeling to the hands, too."

"You made it yourself?!" Both Dad and Jaime said at the same time, and looked at each other at the same time.

"S-Sorry, Your Majesty." Jaime said.

Both Mom and I looked at each other and giggled.

"That's alright." Dad said. "But is that really you, Jaime? You look really different from your student profile."

"I'm not so sure about that, Your Majesty. I think it's just the clothes." Jaime answered.

"Could you do a little turn for me?" Dad said.

Jaime was obviously confused as he slowly turned like he did back at Madame Collette's.

"That's a really good suit you've got yourself there, Jaime. You'd really make a good soldier or knight, you know." Dad said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. But once again, I just don't have the skills to be in such positions." Jaime gently shook his head.

"Where are Amber and James anyway, Mom?" I asked.

"They already left, Sofia. They just brought their clothes along with them." Mom said. "I really love the way you did with the gold lining on the edges of your whole dress."

"I even did it on my shoes." I lifted up my dress a little to show my shoes to her.

"They are really gorgeous, Sofia. I kind of wished I had a pair myself." She giggled.

"It's still a little early though. Are you both going to go already?" Dad looks at me.

"I was planning on bringing Jaime to the hall, for a little dance lesson." I said.

"Oh. Do you know how to dance, Jaime?" Mom asks.

"Only when I'm with my own mother." Jaime answers. "So I'm not really sure where the level of my dancing skills are on, My Queen."

"Well, I'm sure you will do just fine. Sofia's great at dancing, so I'm sure she'll teach you well." Dad answers proudly.

"I'm sure she will." Jaime replies.

"Oh, Rolly. Can't we watch them for just a bit?" Mom begs with her hands together.

"Now, now. We've got some things to arrange, remember? After all, now is the most convenient time since it'll only be the two of us for a few hours." Dad props his right arm up.

"Oh, right. I guess I just kinda got carried away." She said. "Be sure to take care of yourselves when you both go out for tonight, alright?" She gives me a kiss on my forehead.

"Sure, Mom." I said.

"I promise to take care of her, Your Majesties." Jaime says.

"Good man, Jaime." Dad gives him a thumbs up with his free right hand.

We watched as Mom and Dad left us arm-in-arm towards the staircase.

"Let's go, Jaime." I said and led the way to the hall.

We arrived at the hall, where it was empty. No one was on cleaning duty for the next two hours, which is until we leave for the school Ball. We walked towards the middle of the room and stopped. I turned to face Jaime.

"So, what kind of dance do you know, Jaime?" I asked.

"I only know the basic one, where you hold hand in hand with your partner and dance in a box pattern." He says.

"Ah. You mean the one where you go 'One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three.', right?" I said while I did the steps on the spot in a box pattern.

"Yes. That's the one." He says. "And some of the ones where you add-lib some extra steps into that dance, like linking arms or raising arms into the air."

"Great." I put my hands together. "What about the type of music? Which are you most comfortable with?"

"Um...I usually dance to classical music...instrumental...but anything that has an obvious rhythm or beat to it that I can easily follow along is fine too."

"Hm. I think you'll be fine." I said. "Shall we try one small dance together?"

"R-R-Right now?" He says.

"Of course. Why do you think we're here in the hall?" I spread my arms open wide.

"O...'kay? Lemme just, uh, conjure up a tune."

He takes out his wand from inside of his jacket and points towards the large glass window where you could see Mr. Cedric's tower just outside. A floating violin appeared levitating in the air as it starts to play a familiar song.

"It's...the song from my very first Ball, a Ball officially announcing my arrival in the castle!"

"Oh, uh, is it?"

"It's going to be easy for the both of us then. Let's just hold hands instead for now"

I lifted my dress a bit and did a curtsy, and he makes a bow with his right arm in the front and the left behind him.

"Try taking the lead, Jaime." I said.

"Uh, sure."

He takes my left hand with his right and my right with his left hand, my hands on top and his hands under.

"Good." I said. "What's next?"

"I shall lead, Princess."

No sooner than when he finishes his sentence that he takes his first step forwards with his left foot and I took a step back with my right foot, then he does a couple more in the same step, make it a complete 'Box' step dance. Then we stop.

"You know the Box step." I said.

He takes my hands again and he does half of the whole 'Box' steps, then he releases my left hand and raises my right arm while still holding my right hand above our heads, and starts turning me around with him going backwards, and he comes back forward to catch my left hand after I finish a whole turn. Then we stop.

"The Ladies Underarm Turn." I said again.

He takes my hands once again, and with a little nudge back on my left hand I move back on my left leg to make the first part of the box, without turning ourselves to any sort angles or degrees. Just as we finish the first part he nudges my right hand back, instructing me to move back again, this time starting on my right foot. I move my right leg back to make a part of the box, still without moving into any angles or degrees, and he nudges my left arm back again before we finish the step. Then I move my left foot back again like the first time and did another part of the box.

I was about to say something just as we're finishing the last part of the step when he nudges my right arm towards him, indicating that he wanted me to move forward with my right foot this time. It took me a moment to realize what the whole dance step was as I looked up at him to make eye-to-eye contact.

"You were doing the Progressive step, right?" I said.

"Yeah. I was." His smiled half way.

I let him finish the whole dance step until we were back in our original position. We stopped there again.

"Anymore?" I asked excitedly.

"Only one more, I think. I just don't remember what it's name is." He said.

"Just lead me." I said as I let him take my hands again.

He leads me to make half of a box starting on my right foot back, then into the Ladies Underarm Turn starting on my left foot. As I come back from my twirl, instead of taking hold of my left hand which I had to let go to make the Ladies Underarm Turn, he presses his right hand's palm to meet my left's palm as we meet face to face with about an arm's length space between us. I take a quick look down to see his legs, and saw his right leg bending inward. He starts moving his right leg outward 90 degrees, as I did the same with my left leg. He then takes his left leg forward in front of the right leg with our fronts facing outward and our backs back to back still going in one direction. I start to make my guess as I move my right leg forward 90 degrees and turn myself forward with my left palm raised up to my chest level, and there I meet Jaime with his right palm closing the space on my palm. Finally we start moving with the 'Box' step with him moving his right leg back as we slowly shorten the gap between us. We stopped and let go.

"That is one complete Face to Face step, Jaime." I clapped.

"Thank you, Princess. But I still lack the skills needed for dancing." He shrugs his shoulders. "And the knowledge for some of the other steps."

"That's alright. At least I know one thing about you."

"And that is?"

"You know how to follow on counts and beats. You have the rhythm for dancing. Although that last one had a mixture of Salsa and Meringue in it."

"Oh. Well, my mother was a bit of a dancer, so it does get a bit confusing when I dance with her. I actually know more dance steps, but to tell which steps are which and to which category they belong to, I just can't tell."

"Well, we've still got time, let's sort out what you know and sort them out with the time that we've got left." I offered my hand out. "If you'd let me."

"You're to take the lead, huh?" He smirked, in a good way. "Alright." And he takes a bow.

It felt like an intense workout, but within the time that we've got, we managed to sort out most of his dances and steps into categories and organization. As soon as we were done practicing we left the castle and headed for the school, on the flying coach. I sat on the side of the carriage where I am facing the flying horse, and Jaime was sitting facing the back.

"Finally we're going to the Ball-dance. Isn't this exciting, Jaime?" I said.

I was all excited with my head full of thoughts, imagining how the Ball would look like, how the decorations would be decorated, and how everyone would look in their clothes. I waited for Jaime's reply, but he didn't make a sound.

"Jaime?" I turned to face him.

But he was facing, staring out into the vast sky. He must probably be in deep thought about his finals, or other personal things. I decided not to disturb him and his thoughts until we reach the school grounds. It's kind of fair since I did kept him moving about all day without letting him take a break since he came back from his shift back at Mystic Meadows. As I thought about that, I turned to take a look at him and found him already asleep with his head resting on his right hand. I carefully shifted over to his side and slowly laid his head onto my left shoulder. His face looks very pale from all of the tiredness he's gone through.

"I'd better help him get in shape and in good health. He must be very tired and had not enough to eat or rest. I promise to take good care of you and Mr. Cedric, whenever either one of you are in the castle."

Some of his black hair were sticking onto his face by the wind, I moved them away as gently as I could with the tips of my fingers, trying not to disturb his sleep as best as I could.

I watched the sun set into the clouds as the coach finally arrives onto the school grounds. There were other coaches parked on the ground; Amber and James' one was parked just beside the school gate's fence, followed by Clio's, then Hildegard's. Just on the opposite of Amber and James' was probably Zandar's, followed by an orange coach and a pale pink coach of which I do not know who came in them or belonged to. Our Coachman decided to park our coach beside the pale pink one.

"I've secured the coach, Your Highness." The Coachman said to me.

"Thank you." I replied back.

Jaime was still fast asleep on my shoulder. I kind of feel bad, but I have to wake him up now or we'll never get inside the school.

"Jaime. Jaime~." I said in a calm tone. "We're here, Jaime."

"...uuuuuuhhhh...uh?.." He moaned.

"We've arrived at the school, Jaime." I said.

"...Huh?...school?...five more minutes...please..." He was slowly drifting off. He probably thought that it was time to go to Sorcerer's school.

"Hehe. Come on, Jaime. The Ball-dance's about to start soon."

"...Ball-dance?..."

"That's right, the Ball-dance at Royal Prep." I said. "Besides, I can't have you sleeping on my shoulder any longer, it's already numb."

"...shoulder?...Huh?!"

He slightly moved his head down first, then he turns to look up at me, his eyes blinking multiple times.

"Hi." I said with a smile. "Had a nice dream?"

His eyes instantly opened as wide like you would opening the curtains, quickly removes his head off my shoulder and stand up straight and tall. You could clearly see that he was in a shocked state, probably scared about how his head was on my arm just now, but I wouldn't blame him.

"W-W-W-W-W-W-Why d-d-didn't you wake me up, Princess?!" He said without facing at me. "D-Don't you know surprises like that could harm one's heart?! And possibly lead to Death?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You looked so tired that when you dozed off your head and hand were bobbing up and down." I lied, with a smile. "I wanted you to rest anyway, you must've had it hard back at Mystic Meadows."

He sharply turns to look at me, with one brow up and his eyes narrowed in on me, just like a hawk.

"Are...you mad...Jaime?" I was a little scared.

He breathes in really deep, and slowly exhales out of his mouth.

"Next time, just let me sleep sitting upright, alright?" He says with a calmed voice. "I don't do very well with scares and surprises like that. I don't...have a very healthy heart, despite how I look like on the outside."

"Oh. You have a heart condition." My eyes widened.

"Something like that."

"I'm sorry, Jaime. I promise not to do something like that again. I won't ever surprise you with anything ever again." I said with a sunken feeling as I looked on my hands and to the floor.

Then I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Surprises like dinner by the window and being tailored on the spot for clothes is fine, but surprises like this or when I'm being ambushed, are what would make my heart go all wrong." He says. "Uh...or something along the line like that...sorry, I can't find the right words. What I'm trying to say is, you can still surprise me, but, uh, not with ones that would give a heart attack. Aaaaahhhccckkk! What am I saying?"

I watch him as he scratches his head, desperately trying to find the right words to say to me. At the sight of it, it made my heart smile warmly. I gently took his hand that was scratching on his hand and sandwiched them with my hands.

"Princess?" He looks at me with a curious look.

"Thank you, Jaime, and I'm sorry. I promise to only give surprises that won't cause you to panic."

"Oh. Um...Okay." He says, with an easy smile. "And I'm sorry about raising my voice earlier."

"It was my fault, you don't have to apologize." I brushed it off with my hand. "Ready to go inside?"

"Shouldn't I be saying that?"

We both laughed.

After we both got off the coach, we walked through the gates and saw a large glittery banner that had 'Welcome' written in large black colored lettering. It was probably something Amber had put together at the last moment since I didn't see it being made during her previous preparation days.

"That letter 'M' looks like-"

"I know, Jaime." I quickly cut in his words. "Best not to say anything. There might be ears nearby."

Amber usually hears the tiniest of whispers, so gossips and rumors that goes around in school usually reaches her, either for good or bad. We looked at the entrance of the main building and saw something like fog or smoke flowing out.

"That's funny." I said.

"It's fake fog." Jaime says right away. "Like those make shift ones you'd usually use in those Haunted houses attractions during Halloween."

"Hm. Interesting."

We entered the school building and I guided us along the hallway, towards the main hall. It took a while as we finally reached the windowed doors of the hall, which were conveniently opened, wide.

"Princess."

Jaime says as he offers his left arm. I take it by wrapping it around with my right arm and lifted up a little bit of my skirt with my left hand.

"Ready." I replied.

As if in synced, we walked into a slow curve as we centered ourselves and entered through the doors, into the hall.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: **Sofia The First Belongs to Disney._

_Comments From the Author:_

I FEEL THE PRESSURE...

...NEED A JOB...

...NEED TIME...

...NEED SUPPORT FROM FANS!...

I don't know how much time will I have before I have to give in to finding an actual 'JOB'...I was hoping that maybe I could depend on luck and time for the government support money to help me be on my feet...but I really need money to survive in the world...and to feed my daughter...and the bills...My writing might go down in the dumpster one day...

I need all of the support I could get on here...Youtube...Blogger...just so I could continue what I love doing...but it seems it'll all go back to just being a "Dream That Never Made It"...Please help spread my legacy out to the rest of the world...I just want my work to touch even one second of their life...even just a smile...

Anyways...I'm still not sure how many chapters will there be since I'm still in the middle of it all...the PRESSURE!...so If you'd like to see a different pairing after Ced-Fia...please vote your choice of pairing found on my profile page...if you do not have a FanFiction account...you can leave your choice in my Twitter...Deviant Art...Blogger...or on my Youtube Account...I will be accepting these votes until the end of September this year...Yes...You've got a lot of time to get your friends or acquaintances (who likes and knows the STF series that is) to vote for your next favorite pairing for me to write...the highest votes will be the next pairing series for me to write after Ced-Fia...Remember..._VOTE VOTE VOTE_!

Here's a list of my social accounts...

Youtube: Natnarf1 (With a Cedric picture)

Deviant Art : Natnarf

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Ello: natnarf

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Well...I won't keep you guys any longer...

Remember...My next Preview of the next chapter or part will be posted in my Deviant Art and/or Blogger, on the 11th of every month...

Happy reading everyone! Enjoy!~

Until then...

_This is Natnarf..._

_Signing Off!~_

* * *

_Cedric's POV_

We entered through the doors, and for the first time in forever, I never thought that I would ever experience that feeling again, like the first time I entered the castle of Enchancia: the moment you enter into a new environment, your skin starts to feel dry and and itchy as it contracts, your clothes starts to feel uncomfortably tight and hot, and you could feel the closed parts on your body heating and moisten. A feeling I would often feel only when faced with highly important people and mighty Royal Kings; a feeling I call '_Nerve-Wracking_'!.

The floor of the hall's filled with ever flowing '_fake_' fog. Long rows of tables with white table cloths are lined up on either sides of the room, filled with endless dishes of food and beverages, plates and utensils, tea cups and napkins, and some pure white wax candles on gold candle stands, placed evenly apart from each other to embrace as much of the delicacies as it could with its bright flame. On that note I looked up and a huge chandelier hang above with all of its candles lit up, but its brightness was slightly dimmed, just a bit. The decorations all over the hall were sophisticated, but elegant. The walls were filled with long and heavy dark red curtains, tied up with golden ropes to let the natural light from the outside in through the large glass windows. As if it weren't enough, you could even see the air sparkling with some sort of shiny dust, suspended in the air. As we walked deeper into the room, you could feel the floor was all smooth, indicating that there were no carpets around even with all of the fog around, which will also mean that the floor will be at its most humid, that everyone will eventually start slipping all over the place in more than 2 seconds. Some young princes and princesses that were already at the scene were slowly walking around, but it would be a danger if any one of them would start to slip right now.

"Princess." I said with a tone of concern. "I have a slight concern about this fog. It should be turned off."

"Huh? Why?" Princess Sofia looks at me as we stopped walked altogether.

"The moist in the fog with create lots of wetness on the floor, and it will become very slippery that everyone will start slipping and sliding all over the place."

"Oh. That's right." She says as she looks around. "You're very observant."

"Um, thank you, Princess." I tipped my head a little.

"Well..." She says as she looks around the room as if searching for something, but doesn't seem to be able to find what she's looking for. "I don't see Amber anywhere. Maybe you could use your magic and diminish the fog?"

"I'm afraid it won't be possible unless I know where the source of the fog is coming or generating from."

"Right. Hm..." She pauses for a minute. "Maybe...you could place...a slightly soft carpet on the whole floor, where it won't be easily seen but can still be danced on it."

"Good idea. Excuse me." I said as I wiggled my arm away from hers.

I took my wand from inside my jacket and start circling in a small circle downwards towards the floor.

"_Vestis Extendere!_" I whispered out the words.

'_Vestis_' means 'Carpet', '_Extendere_' means 'To Spread'. And with a direct blast towards the floor of the room, it was instantly covered with a pale yellow carpet, which no one would be able to tell. Then I quickly hid my wand back inside my jacket.

"No one will suspect a thing." I said as I offered m arm.

"Great." Princess Sofia says delightedly as she took my arm.

"Yoohoo!~ Sofia!~" A voice called out from the side.

We turned to face the left side of the hall and saw a princess in teal colored dress, almost as if it was in a pattern made to look like scales of a fish or reptile and her hair naturally let down with a couple of shells clipped onto her hair, probably. Standing beside her on her right was probably the prince from Tangu, who had his turban on with part of his long hair parted and rested on his shoulders, dressed with only a vest, and his pants, or baggy pants perhaps, in the same teal color as the princess's dress.

"Ah. It's Hildegard and Zandar." the Princess said. "Let's go over to them."

"Uh...okay." I answered.

"She's Princess Hildegard of Friezenburg, and he's Prince Zandar of Tangu. They're both dressed up in a Mermaid theme." She said quietly as we walked closer to them.

"How do you know that?" I asked quietly.

"Just pretend you don't for now." She said just as we got in front of them.

"Hello, Sofia." Princess Hildegard said as she opened her fan.

"Hi, Hildegard." She curtsied with her right arm still around mine and her left hand slightly lifting her dress. "When did you both get here?"

"Just before you did, probably ten minutes ago or so." the young Princess Hildegard answered with a dignified tone, smiling. "Love your dress by the way."

"Oh. Thank you. Yours looks really pretty and shiny. Are you a Peacock?"

"Oh, I wish I was, but I'm dressed as a Mermaid, even though I couldn't really wear a tail all the way here."

"It's still pretty though. I love it."

"Thank you." She looks at me. "Oh! And who's this?"

"Oh. Pardon me." I take my right hand over my chest and bowed my head, without letting go of Princess Sofia's arm. "I'm Jaime, a Sorcerer student, currently employed as a part time Royal Sorcerer for the Royal family Enchancia." I said and stood back up.

"Oh. I see. I'm Princess Hildegard." She curtsies.

"I'm Prince Zandar." The prince next to her says and bows. "You sure know how to bow without removing yourself from your partner's arm. Nicely done."

"Oh. Thank you kindly, Young Prince." I replied with a slight bow.

"So you're the Jaime that the twins were talking about." He says. "They've been talking about you while they were running about finishing the final touches not too long ago. Along with that odd touch out front."

"Must've been James' doing." Princess Hildegard followed.

"Do you know where they are now?" Princess Sofia asks.

"Probably looking for the Faeries. They do have to report back to them before the Ball-dance could even begin." the princess said as she opens her fan and slightly flutters it to fan herself.

"Oh." I said unintentionally.

"What are you guys talking about?" Another voice says behind us.

We all turned slightly to the side to see who it was, and it was another set of prince and princess, both wearing in black colors. The young prince was wearing an all black and snazzy suit, like a tux, while the young princess was wearing a black shiny long gown with short sleeves and long white gloves.

"Vivian! Desmond!" Princess Sofia waved excitedly. "You both look totally amazing."

"It's nothing special really." the princess says. "We have to perform later, so we really had to wear something formal and light."

"Under Amber's request?" Princess Hildegard asks.

"Yeah." the young prince answers this time. "She had also brought a few of her castle staffs over to play the music for the Ball-dance, but left the special opening for us."

"I see." Princess Sofia says. "I can't wait to hear you both play."

"I'm sure it'll be soon, Sofia." the princess smiles just as her eyes landed on me. "Oh. And who is this?"

"I'm Jaime." I bowed with my head again. "I'm a Sorcerer student, currently employed as a part time Royal Sorcerer for the Royal family of Enchancia."

"A part time sorcerer? Is that even allowed?" the eyes of the young prince widened.

"Dad granted it." Princess Sofia replied with a shrug.

"Well then. I'm Princess Vivian." She curtsies.

"I'm Prince Desmond." He bows. "Pleasure to meet you, Jaime."

"Pleasure's all mine, Young Majesties." I said with a slight nod of my head.

"Oh! You've got quite a hairstyle, Jaime." Princess Vivian points at my hair rested on my shoulders. "Shiny too. It's nice."

"Oh. Uh, thank you?" I wasn't sure how to reply to that.

"I didn't noticed he had long hair." Princess Hildegard says who was already behind me. "Zandar. Is your full hair like this or longer?"

"Obviously mine's longer than his." Prince Zandar replied. "But his is more thinner than mine, which is quite nice actually."

"I see." Princess Hildegard says. "You're really lucky, Sofia. He's quite a catch." As she closes her fan with two fingers.

"Thank you." Princess Sofia smiles.

I could feel myself blushing and heating, gradually getting faster.

"Welcome everyone! To-"

"-To Royal Prep's Ball-Dance!"

We all turned towards the source of the voices. Out of nowhere, a puff of magic dust exploded on the steps or stage and gradually appeared three fairies. If I'm not mistaken, they are the Headmistresses of this school: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. They are the most famous of faeries practically known by anyone and everyone. The only question that I have been dying to ask about them, if anyone hasn't asked yet, is their age. They've been around for so long that even my grandfather knew them as a child. I mean, who hasn't thought about it?

Fauna then flew over to us, or say hovered over us.

"I see everyone's well dressed." She said.

"Wouldn't have come unprepared, Ms Fauna." Princess Hildegard said and closed her fan.

"I'm sure, Princess Hildegard." Fauna replies. "Your dress is finely designed with flawless colors and fabric of choice."

"Thank you, Ms. Fauna." Princess Hildegard curtsies.

"And my, Oh my! How sharp and professional, Princess Vivian and Prince Desmond."

"Thank you, Ms. Fauna." Princess Vivian says and curtsies.

"I wouldn't say sharp, but professional, maybe." Prince Desmond says and bows.

"And Princess Sofia, you look dazzling!" Fauna looks at Princess Sofia. "Especially with the embroidery touch."

"Thank you, Ms. Fauna." She curtsied only using one hand to lift her dress again.

"And who is this fine young man?"

It was Flora, who was flying over to us.

"Good evening, Ms. Flora." Princess Sofia. "He's a Sorcerer student, currently employed as our part time Royal Sorcerer while he waits to takes his finals."

"Good evening, Madam Flora. Madam Fauna" I said and bowed my head with my left arm still holding Princess Sofia's right arm. "The name's Jaime. It is an honor to meet the legendary and heroic faeries of all time."

"My, my! What a charming young man." Flora says with a light laugh. "I'm sure we are not as legendary or as heroic as everyone says. We're just ordinary faeries running a school for young royalties."

"I'm not so sure about that. No other ordinary faeries have managed to establish and run a school, whether for royalties or commoners. And not to mention your bravery when you were all rescuing Princess Aurora from Malificent. I still think those are some of the greatest achievements ever done by such an honorable trio."

"Well-"

"Thank you very much, Jaime!"

Merryweather suddenly interrupts us.

"We really hope that you-"

"You'll enjoy yourself and have-

"-a GREAT time here!"

Both Merryweather and Flora kept on bickering while trying to finish each others' sentences while, just as the legends has also noted that about them.

"Uh, Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian." Fauna goes in between them to cut them off. "Please go take your positions, so that we can start the program soon." She struggles to keep both of the raging faeries apart.

"Oh, right! Let's go, Vii." Prince Desmond offered his arm.

"Alright." She smiles and accepts. "Excuse us, everyone." They both bowed and curtsied and left heading towards the stage.

"Vii?" Princess Hildegard's eyes were opened widely.

"I guess they've taken their relationship to another step already." Prince Zandar says as he offers his arm to her. "Shall we get going?"

"Might as well." She says and takes his arm. "See you later, Sofia."

Princess Sofia only waved in response.

"Sofia!" A voice calls out from behind.

We turned our heads to see a girl in tanned skin quickly striding over to us. She is wearing a shiny and sparkly brown dress, brown gloves, a fur like scarf, and has a hair band with ears.

"Oh, Clio." Princess Sofia said. "Are you dressed as a cat?"

"No, Sofia. I was trying to get a Lioness theme." She twirls around slowly and we noticed the skirt of the dress having a layer of fur, fake of course.

"You've gotten too excited that you practically left me behind in the coach."

A boy was walking over towards us. His whole attire was in a darker shade of brown; he had a crown like the one that boastful King Magnus always wears, a jacket with a thick line of fake fur around the collar as well as the ends of the sleeves, his brown inner shirt and vest was visibly seen as the jacket was widely opened, and he was wearing knee leveled brown heeled shoes. What an odd theme to wear for a Ball-Dance. Must've been the princess's idea.

"Oops. Sorry, Hugo." Princess Clio said.

"As long as you don't fall and trip, then it's alright." Prince Hugo said.

If I remembered correctly, this Prince Hugo is from the Principality of Albuquerque, and most of the male members of the family are famous Derby riders. They are also known to be a little...high on 'Pride', if I remembered right.

"Evening, Sofia." He said.

"Good evening, Hugo. Did you both come in one coach together?" Princess Sofia asked.

"Yeah. I picked Clio up from her place." Prince Hugo said. "Who's this?"

"Hugo, Clio. This is Jaime, my escort for this evening." Princess Sofia answered. "He's a Sorcerer student, working temporarily as our Royal Sorcerer before he takes his finals at Sorcerer's school."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Prince Hugo and Princess Clio." I first bowed to the prince then to the princess.

"Likewise, Jaime." the princess said with a curtsy.

"Jaime." the prince said short, which was expected. Most of the members in his family are also short on their greetings, unless it is someone who they really respect, like how he had greeted Princess Sofia just now. He would've partnered well with Princess Sofia instead of Princess Clio. Then again, I don't really know the back story on their pairing, or everyone else on that matter.

"I really love the green color, Sofia, as well as the gold and sparkles." Princess Clio points at the gold lacing fabric on the dress. "Did you handmade this one, too?"

"Yes, I did." Princess Sofia says.

"I knew it. I remembered how you said you made that Swan themed dress before for Halloween when we were still kids. It has always been imprinted in my head, comparing how I had tried to make a Leopard costume, but most of my spots on it fell off before I even arrived at the school."

"But you got better at sewing later on, right?"

"Yes, Sofia. I did, after about fifty needle injuries on my hands."

"So how about this one? Did you make it, too?" Princess Sofia gestured at Princess Clio's dress.

But Princess Clio shook her head. "I only did the ears and gloves. My Dressmaker back home was scared that my hands would be covered with spotted-scars that she decided to put it together instead, then she done Hugo's."

"We don't have permanent Dressmakers of our own since they always get hired on the first day then get fired three to five days later. We usually ask the Dressmakers amongst the common folks, but they would never finish an order within a day, fastest was three days, so I went to her castle to get my measurements done. It was only this afternoon that I got to try the clothes on."

"Oh. Jaime also had his measurements done by our Dressmaker last night, and only got to fix the final touches right after lunch today." Princess Sofia uses her left hand to gesture at my whole attire.

"Oh." He says as he looks at me from head to toe. "It is very well made, especially that bouquet he has there." He gestures his hand on his neck to indicate the area around my collar. "I might try to visit your Dressmaker sometime, Sofia, when I have the chance."

"Of course. Just tell me when you wanna come by so that I could bring you to her personally."

"Thanks." Then he looks at me again. "When is the best time to visit you? I'd also like to see how you work sometime as well."

"I'm...usually at the Royal Sorcerer's workshop in the castle from noon to midnight, uh, Prince Hugo. Only for six months though." I couldn't help but feel delighted for some odd reason.

"Alright. I'll be sure to remember that." He then looks at Princess Clio. "Shall we?" And offers his arm.

"I thought you'd never ask." She says and takes it. "Later, Sofia. Jaime."

We both watched them walk away from us.

"Alright then." Princess Sofia looks at me. "Let's go."

"Please. Or we'll never move away from our spot."

We both moved closer to the stage as we stood near the center of the platform stage, between Prince Zandar and Princess Clio, and another pair whom I did not recognize. Then all of the lights instantly went out, except for one spotlight that focused centerly on the stage. The stage had large red curtains hanging and closed, which wasn't noticeable unless you went closer to the front of the stage or had turned off most of the lights like now. The curtains then parted open in the middle and out came Princess Amber, who was dressed in a green dress, and had a large tail fan on her back with colors that almost looked like her pet Peacock's tail.

"Good evening, everyone." She said loud and clear. "Welcome to our last get-together-as-a-whole-class Ball, in short, our Ball-dance. Let us all enjoy this night as we start off with a musical number from two of our most talented classmates, and popular love team, Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian!"

She walks off to the side of the stage as the curtains slowly opens and reveals Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian standing in the middle and in front of the other musicians, who were all sitting down in chairs holding different other musical instruments near the back of the stage. The prince had an accordion, while the princess had some sort of string instrument, perhaps a ukelele or a small guitar. They both bowed and positioned their instruments in place.

"Places, everyone!" Princess Amber says aloud.

We all scattered into a space, where we all had enough space to dance with our own partners. We ended up in the middle of the room, which was alright considering that I didn't want to be anywhere near a wall. I take my bow and Princess Sofia curtsies, and link our hands together, hers on top and mine below.

"Vivian." Princess Amber said again.

As the princess started playing a few tunes and we start off with a 'Box' step, it took a few tunes for me to realize that she was playing a mandolin.

"She's really good with that mandolin." I said while turning Princess Sofia in a Ladies Underarm Turn.

"That's Vivian for you." She whispered back. "She can play different kinds of instruments, from the mandolin to the violin, to the piano and the bongos."

"_Really?_" I felt both my eyes widen. "I wish I was also that talented in music."

"At least when you take and pass your finals, you will become a very talented and well known Sorcerer." She said. "Who knows, maybe Mr. Cedric would end up hiring you as his personal assistant."

My hands almost tightened their grip at the mentioning of my name, but I took quick breaths to calm myself and continued to do the 'Box' dance steps.

"What's wrong, Jaime?" She asked me.

"Uh...I was...I was thinking of what to reply back, but I couldn't of anything good so I remained silent." I could feel a bead of sweat starting to form on the side of my left temple.

"Hehe. If it was someone else, just say 'Thank you for the compliment' or ''Maybe, maybe not', or something that could end the topic and move onto another one." She giggled.

"I'll try to remember that." I said without looking at her.

We danced continuously in same the repetitive pattern, the 'Box' and 'Ladies Underarm', over and over again, until the music finished playing ending with Princess Vivian's plucking on the last few notes on the mandolin. All of us stopped dancing and faced forward to applause. Princess Amber got onto the side of the stage as the spot light shone on her.

"Once again, Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian." She spreads her arms wide towards to two royals on the stage.

The dimmed hall gradually brightens up as the rest of the room became more visible. As the castle staffs on stage starts to play on their instruments, everyone in the room starts to chatter with each other and their partners.

"Jaime, wanna rest by the curtains?" The princess tugs on my arm while pointing to a curtain near the table with refreshments and the doors.

"Sure, Princess."

We went over to the tables and leaned against the wall. She released my arm and I could feel and hear the blood flowing and pumping through my tired arm, telling me that I wasn't very relaxed at all during our little dance number. I flexed my arms a little bit as remind myself to not to get so tense in my hold in the future.

"Want some?"

The princess was pointing to a bowl of orange liquid in a large bowl, with a serving spoon with an extended handle in it. There were a stack of clean cups next to it, not like the ones used during the family meals back at the castle.

"Uh...sure. Won't know when's the next time we'll have a chance to have a break just to get refreshments." I replied. "I'll pour it for us-"

"That's alright. I'll do it." She quickly cuts me off. "I invited you here, so I should serve you." And pours a scoop of juice into the cup, which is exactly the right amount, then hands the cup to me. "Here you go, Jaime."

"Oh. Thank you, Princess." I carefully take the cup while avoiding her fingers.

I took a sip while I watch the princess pour one for herself to drink. The taste of the juice was freshly squeezed as you could taste the pulp bits in it. It's sweet, not too cold or warm. With my current body size, it took only two gulps to finish the whole cup of juice, it would've taken about four or five if I was in my normal state. Being this big as a person, I'm still not used to it.

"Oh. You're finished." The princess noticed just as she was about to drink in her cup. "Want some more?"

"It's alright. I can pour some myself." I held up my hand to stop her from moving. "I am kind of a big person, so everything's...a small portion to me."

I went over to the front of the bowl and took the big serving spoon and poured into my cup, filled to the brim. I quickly and carefully drank it as to avoid spilling any of it onto my clothes or the floor.

"You're really thirsty, aren't you, Jaime." A voice said beside me.

I turned to look and saw Princess Vivian next to me and Prince Desmond just coming from behind her.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Did you want a drink too?" I said as I put down my cup. "I'll help you pour one-"

"No, no. It's alright. I kind of want to do things by myself while I'm away from home." She said. "I saw that you were pouring yourself a second serving while I was coming here."

"It's just the size of the cup is a little small for my size." I said as I realized how tall I was compared to her and Princess Sofia when getting back

"Well, you are a big person. I'm sure you'll still be growing until you've reached the age of twenty-one." She said as she poured herself a cup to drink. "See you both later." She leaves us with a smile.

"I wonder if I'll be able to grow as tall as you." Prince Desmond said as he and Princess Vivian appeared beside us.

"You're still young, Young Prince. I'm certain that you'll grow even taller." I said. "By the way, your opening number was absolutely fantastic, and melodious if I may be able to add."

"Me-low-dous?" Princess Vivian looked at Prince Desmond curiously.

"It's _'Melodious',_ 'Meh-low-Dee-Ous.'" Princess Sofia came into the conversation and explains. "It means pleasant to the ear, like the sounds of nature combined with the breezy wind, or the chirping of the birds along with softly rustling of the leaves of bushes and trees."

"Melodious...I like that word." Princess Vivian nods with a soft smile.

"I guess we were 'Melodious' in a way." Prince Desmond nods as well.

"So are you both not playing anymore?" Princess Sofia asked.

"We actually have a little surprise in store later. Maybe after an hour or so, depends on Amber's cue." The prince looks up momentarily as if imagining a clock just above his head.

"I hope you both like dancing as much as we love playing the music for it." Princess Vivian said. "There will be a prize involved."

"Is it a sort of contest, like dancing?" I asked as I drink the remains in my cup.

"Yes." Princess Vivian nods her head in delight. "Most of the songs will be based for ballroom theme."

"Except the last song, which is a surprise number, and will be played when there are only three teams remain standing." Prince Desmond says enthusiastically. "Of course, Amber herself doesn't know about it either since we never told her about it."

"Nor the castle staffs playing in the back." Princess Vivian added. "So It'll just be the both of us playing it."

"Wow." I said filled with noticeable honest excitement in my voice. "This sounds interesting."

"I didn't think you'd be that excited." Princess Sofia said with her eyes widely opened. "Even your eyes are brimming with excitement."

"A Sorcerer? Excited about dancing?" Prince Desmond's eyes were so widely opened that you could pop them anytime with anything that has a point, like my wand.

"It's not that odd, Desmond." Princess Vivian says. "Do you all know who Greylock is?"

My smile turned into a frown instantly at the mentioning of Greylock's name.

"Who's he?" Prince Desmond asked.

"Oh. You mean King Magnus' Royal Sorcerer." Princess Sofia says.

"That's right. He and King Magnus came over to our castle some time ago, to discuss with my mom about trading and stuff. I never got to know the details about it. I was in my music room that time, practicing on the piano, and it was during my playing that I heard weird metal clanging sounds just outside the room. Crackle happened to be near the door, who was taking a nap and was waken up by the sounds, and I gestured her to slowly open the door. There I saw him! Greylock! Dancing with one of the full Amour gear that was on display, right outside my door." She started laughing, in a very humorous, yet graceful way. "Haha. You should've seen how red his face was when he finally noticed me watching, and laughing hard on the piano stool."

I could feel the corners of my mouth curling, as I could imagine the humiliation he felt at that moment. The others were giggling and holding theirs mouths, trying not to burst.

"Ha ha...ha...Mom and King Magnus never knew or found out about it. Please though, just keep this between us, everyone. " Princess Vivian puts a finger to her lips as she dries her teary eyes with her handkerchief.

"We won't tell." Prince Desmond and Princess Sofia said at the same time, still giggling.

"Of course." I said with a smirk. I have just found my newest revenge.

"Is something going on I don't know about?" A feminine voice said from behind us.

I turned to see that it was the princess from earlier, who was beside me when we went to the front of the stage. Her hair was at chin level, black and shiny. She was dressed in a peculiar design: Her sleeves were off shoulders, in black, her waist was wrapped around in a large pink band, but her skirt...that was the part I couldn't even begin to describe. If I had to use simple words, I'd say that it is...as if her was just covered in different shades of black ribbons: long, scattered, had no coordination, multiple layers of ribbons but not leveled, and yet it looked good in its own way, like some sort of freelance artwork.

"Wow." Princess Sofia slid her arm off mine and approached her in awe. "Your dress...it's Ah-Mazing! All of the ribbons! Look at them! It's like a ball of yarn! Or spaghetti!"

"It's like you're a little birthday box, wrapped in ribbons instead of paper." Princess Vivian said, without moving from her spot, still wiping any tears left on her eyes from laughing so hard.

"She looks more like...I don't know...I can't find the words to-"

"A-A-A-A work of art!" I decided to cut Prince Desmond in case he was going to say anything unpleasant. "Like a metaphor, describing how a young lady filled with different layers of emotions and personalities, one in each ribbon."

"Yes, that's exactly right." She looks at me. "I've never seen you before."

"I'm Jaime, Princess Sofia's partner for tonight." I bowed. "I'm a part time Sorcerer for the Royal family of Enchancia."

"He's a Sorcerer student, and he's preparing to take his finals by serving us during the months of waiting." Princess Sofia added.

"Ooh. I see." The princess says and curtsies. "Well, I'm Princess Mae." Stands back up and opens up her fan, made of black lace in it instead of paper.

"Oh, Mae. I really love this dress." Princess Sofia goes around her happily. "What about Frederick? What is he wearing?"

"Oh. It's hard for me to describe actually. He's chatting with Hugo and Clio at the moment." She gestures her hand towards the other end of the room. "But you can still see what he's wearing."

At the other side of was also the end of a long table with a large bowl of filled pink colored liquid. Standing beside it were Princess Clio, Prince Hugo, and a young man who had fair pale skin, his right side of his face was in our line of sight. His body was postured slightly sideways, so we could see his entire clothing. His jacket and pants were black in color, and his inner shirt was in a shade of pale pink. What was unique about the whole outfit, is that his jacket and his breeches were sewn on with many different lengths of ribbons, put together side by side. The jacket was opened in the front, the breeches had many overlaying layers of ribbons that it covers beyond the knee, looking like he was being wrapped up as a Mummy. His socks were in a dark gray color, which blended in with the breeches very well. I kind of feel a little jealous with his looks. He would look really good in almost anything he wears, even to the point of wearing rags or robes alone.

As if by chance, his eyes slightly looked in our direction, he momentarily waves to us and goes back to talking with Prince Hugo and Princess Clio.

"Cool." Princess Sofia says.

"Who thought of the design?" Princess Vivian followed.

"It was an accidental design. We were supposed to come with ribbons, covering and wrapping ourselves from head to toe in one continuous ribbon. We requested the local Tailor in my kingdom to come to my place to start doing the wrapping. He arrived, carrying two really heavy bags of ribbons still in their rollers. Just as the he started wrapping Frederick with the first roll, snapping sounds started going. For some reason, the ribbons started tearing apart on their own, still in the rollers. The Tailor then had an idea and started gluing the torn up pieces of ribbons all over Frederick. I had a dress-cage on stand by, so he did the same thing with the ribbons and started gluing all over it. It took the whole lunch period and two extra hours for the glue to dry, but it was worth it. Frederick suggested adding some pink bits to our clothing, and it really matched our tastes." She finishes her story and lifts one of her individual ribbons hanging on the side.

"I still think it is a brilliant dress." Princess Sofia had her hands together, really tight as her own knuckles were visibly turning white.

"Thank you, Sofia."

"Desmond! Let's go over to Hildegard." Princess Vivian says looking in a different direction.

"Sure." Prince Desmond says and takes her hand. "Let's catch up later, everyone."

"I better head back to Frederick as well. It kinda looks like he won't be able to get away from Clio's excited chatter." Princess Mae curtsies and walks away.

I walked up to Princess Sofia's side, who was still waving to them.

"You are one energetic child, Princess. You know that?"

"Child?" She says as she turns to me. "I guess you could say that, but we're not that far apart in age you know."

"Eh, uh..." I forgot that I was Jaime .

"Well, it doesn't matter." She says and lifts up her skirt to curtsy. "Wanna dance a little more?"

"Certainly." I offered my arm. "Just stop stealing my role, Princess."

She laughs and takes my arm as we make our way to a free space on the dance floor. In hand in hand position, we danced around. After two songs, we ate a little of the food on the tables to fill us up a bit. After we ate we decided to go outside the school garden for a little stroll, to burn off any food inside and to pass the time. I was excited for the little dance contest that I kept on fantasizing all kinds of dance steps and patterns, running about in my head.

At one point, I was going in circles around a tree.

"Um, Jaime. Do you mind waiting her for a bit?" Princess Sofia asked.

"Huh? Where are you headed off to, Princess?" I stopped and asked.

"I need to go to the washroom. I think I had a little too much lemonade."

"Lemme go with you. I think I will also need to relieve myself. If I suddenly need to do so in the middle of dancing later I would've have to hold it in like a penguin."

"Okay." She laughed a bit. "You really do love dancing, don't you, Jaime?"

"I...can't help it, Princess." I said, trying my best not to smile too hard. "It's like a necessity that just can't be ignored or tossed into the bin."

"I know what you mean." She says. "It's like...a habit, or a pet peeve that you can't get rid of."

"Exactly, Princess." I snapped my fingers.

We arrived at the back door and I opened it. We then arrived at the washrooms and went into our designated gender washrooms. I finished first and waited a little ways outside of the washroom doors.

"Oh ho ho ho." A voice echoed along the hallway. "They all have certainly grown up."

It wasn't long before the voice turned into a shadow on the wall, then turning into the corner and went over in my direction as it became into a familiar figure, Fauna herself.

"Oh, if it isn't Princess Sofia's dance partner, uh...Jaime, right?" Ms. Fauna smiled. "How are you enjoying the party so far?"

"Oh. I'm having a great time, Madam Fauna. Wouldn't miss it for the world if I was ever given another opportunity like this, except for my Sorcerer finals, can't skip on those."

"I'm glad to hear that." She said. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Princess Sofia had to go." I gestured my head at the washroom door for the girls.

Just as I finished speaking, the door opens and out came Princess Sofia.

"Sorry if you had to wait so long, Jaime." She says and notices Ms. Fauna. "Oh. Hello, Ms. Fauna."

"You are one lucky princess, you know, Princess Sofia." Ms. Fauna says. "Usually the princes in the school don't wait for their princess friends to finish. They just go on ahead and socialize with someone else."

"Oh. Is it?" Princess Sofia said in a surprised reaction.

"Oh yes. You'd be surprised when you actually see it yourself." Ms. Fauna then looks at me. "It's too bad you're not one of our own students. "

"Uh...Huh?" I blinked multiple times.

"Just joking." She giggled again. "If you'll excuse me, I have to use the little Fairy's room."

We both watched her flying and giggling to herself, still could be heard when she made it inside.

"Let's...just go, Jaime." Princess Sofia says as she wraps her arm around mine and I followed her away.

We remained silent on the way back to the hall as it was already awkward enough. We couldn't be any more glad when the slightest sounds of music and the lively sounds of chatter hit our eardrums.

"Oh. Where were you two?" Princess Clio asks us as she was standing by the doors.

"We went to the washroom." Princess Sofia answered. "Where's Hugo? Why are you here?"

"Sofia. Don't you feel...like we're missing something?"

"Are we?" Princess Sofia tilts her head to one side. "What is it?"

"I don't know...but I know we're definitely missing something, maybe a person or two." Her face was really expressing some concerns.

"Well, we'll try to keep a look out and see who is or are not here." Princess Sofia says and pats on her shoulder. "You should go look for Hugo and rest a little bit."

"I think...I think I might just do that, Sofia. Thanks." She looks at both of us. "See you both later."

I turned to look around the room, observing everyone in the room while I tried to recall everyone we've met. So far, everyone seems to be present.

"I don't think so, at least I'm not yet sure." Princess Sofia said.

"Let's just hope that everyone is here, and safe." I said.

I couldn't say that I was sure, just in case that I could be wrong. It's usually answers like '_I'm sure everyone's here_' or '_I don't think anyone's missing_' would stir up bad luck and news.

The staff playing the music then ends. Princess Amber, escorted by Prince James as he brings her by the hand from the middle of the dancing crowd to the stairs of the stage. Most of us slowly gathered as close to the front.

"Thank you, James. Now." She looks up at everyone. "It's now time for the special event for tonight's Ball, the 'Dance Competition'. Everyone will spread around the room, giving enough space for each pair to dance around in. The musicians, will play different types of dance music, most of them we are most familiar with. For each pair who does not know the dance to each music, or stops dancing, will be taken out of the dance floor, assisted by my other castle staffs who will be on stand by from the curtains. We will keep removing until there are only three pairs left standing on the dance floor. These three pairs, will then dance to a 'Mystery' song number, played by both Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian. The reason I say that it's a 'Mystery', is because no one knows what kind of music will be played. Neither do the musicians or I know of it, and it's also not written in the program."

"Right." I went and made a fist with my right hand.

"You're really excited for this, huh?" Princess Sofia said to me. "I could even feel it...really good...around my arm."

"Huh?"

I looked at my left arm, compressing really tightly around her right arm that it's starting to go really pale in color. She starts massaging it as soon as I released her.

"I'm so sorry, Princess Sofia!" I apologized like a ridiculous mocking bird bowing up and down.

"It's alright." She says. "It's not everyday I get to see a Sorcerer excited for a school dance." As she moves her forearm up and down like she was exercising.

"I'm really sorry. I'll...try to remain calm."

"I said it's okay." She says and takes a hold of my arm firmly with both of her arms. "I'm glad Mr. Cedric asked you to be my partner."

I looked at her as my eyes slowly looked downwards, where my arm was sandwiched right in the hold of her arms and chest. I immediately looked away and blindly slid my arm out of her grip and blindly felt my way to hold her right arm. I heard her giggle. Not sure if she was amused at what she did or the fact that I looked away. I tried to get a peek at her face, and she was still smiling at me, innocently. I let out a breath, thanking the Spirits of Velvet that she's still thinking like an innocent child.

"Alright, everyone!" Princess Amber claps her hands a couple of times and the chattering noise died down instantly. "Before I forget. To be fair on all of us, including yours truly, the music will be conducted by Prince Desmond's cue. Oh! And the winners, will be crowned the Prince and Princess of the Dance Floor."

I don't give a care for the title. All I want to do is enjoy a great dance out while the fun lasts.

"So without further a do, Let The Dance Begin!"

Everyone immediately spreads out and tries to get to their own space.

"Let's move over-"

"No need to move, Princess Sofia." I remained in place. "We'll be able to have the front space to ourselves."

As soon as I finished my sentence everyone was already evenly spaced out, also giving us space of our own. There was also a large area spaced out next to us. We all watched as Prince James and Princess Amber gradually come down from the stage and take their positions in the space next to us. I ready myself by facing my back to the twin siblings, but I could see Princess Sofia's intensive stare was looking passed my way. I glanced back a little to see Prince James also doing the same to her, but it didn't last for long as Princess Amber starts nudging him to get his attention. I turned back to look at Princess Sofia who looked very gloomy. These kids can really change their moods and emotions as if it was just an outfit or magic.

"Princess Sofia." I said to get her attention. "Here."

I grabbed a hold of her upper arms and spun her around, until we were both on each others' original dance positions.

"Just face this way. We wouldn't want that smile of yours to turn all ugly now." I said and pat her head. Trying not to feel all weirdly mushy at the same time.

She blinked her eyes for a couple of times, and then smiled, like the way she usually does.

"Thank you, Jaime. I'll be fine now-" She says and attempts to curtsy.

"Op! Bop! Bop!" I quickly bowed ahead of her and held out my right head. "Let me take the lead this time, Princess Sofia."

She giggled as I stood back up and took hold of her hands, like how we rehearsed.

"After '4', everyone! And a 1! And a 2! And a 3! And a 4!" Prince Desmond conducted.

The music began playing a strong french horn melody, by Princess Vivian. Few beats later, the rest of the staff began to follow. It is a slow paced waltz, one of mother's personal favorites, I began to led the princess on a slow box-step pace, then I turned the her in a twirl.

"Whoa." The Princess started giggling. "You're moving so swift and smoothly, it's like I don't need to move my feet at all."

"Is it? Then that must be why it's mother's favorite." I said as I thought about it.

"Ah!"

The music stopped all at once. We all turned to see a pair had fallen on the ground. Prince Frederick was down on the floor on his rear end, while Princess Mae landed on top of him, caught safely in his arms.

"S-Sorry, Frederick." She said nervously. "I-I stepped on my dress by-"

"It's alright." He says kindly. "We kind of expected this to happen."

"I-I'm really sorry." She apologized again.

"Allow us, Your Majesties."

The staffs who were on stand by walked over to them and helped them up. Lifting the princess up first, then the young prince. The prince then bows to the two staff and takes Princess Mae gently by the arm as they went over in a direction where there were some chairs already lined up by the walls.

"Please be careful, everyone." Princess Vivian says aloud.

"Don't forget to be wary of your dresses, young princesses." Flora says as she hovers over everyone in a circle.

While everyone else had their eyes on the eliminated walking pair, I noticed Princess Sofia looking elsewhere but I couldn't tell what or where exactly. I lowered my head a little closer to her ear.

"What are you looking at, Princess?" I whispered.

"Zandar and Hildegard." She answered. "I have a favor to ask, Jaime. Could you help me let them win this game?"

"Me?" I said. "You mean _cheat_?"

"Not cheating... We'll dance long enough to last on the floor, and when it comes down to us and them, we'll lose on purpose by tripping or something to let them win. Are you fine with it, Jaime?"

"Hm..."

I think quickly as my line of sight shifts back and forth from Princess Sofia to the pair, and I was about to surrender my response when something shines in the corner of my left eye. The Amulet of Avalor, it has once again caught my attention and reminded me of what I really desired from the Princess in the first place. It was then my head started to stir and an idea comes into mind.

"I'd usually say 'no', Princess." I said at first. "But since it's for your two friends, how could I possibly refuse?" I grinned.

"Oh! Thank you, Jaime." She says as she smiles.

"Alright, everyone! We'll start the music again." Prince Desmond aloud says from the stage. "On 'Four'. One! Two! Three! Four!-"

We all went into our dancing stances and began moving as soon as the music started playing. We decided to dance at a slower pace so that we could conserve enough energy and to last a little longer. Eventually all of the other Princes and Princesses began to feel fatigue as they quickly drained most of their stamina from dancing energetically, looking all tired and their paces slowed down. One by one, the groups left to go to the edge of the room as they either could no longer dance because their feet were sore or too numb from not being able to rest or take a break, or their partners trip and bump into another group just beside them that causes them to fall like dominoes. The Princess and I danced at a slow pace for about 30 minutes straight, that includes the musicians themselves. Some of the musicians have taken short breath breaks between a few notes of the music every now and then, only Prince Desmond and Princess Vivian played straight without ever pausing for a breather. That's proof of dedication right there.

The music finally stops when it was finally down to three pairs: us, Prince Zandar and Princess Hidegard, and a pair I recognize, Prince Khalid and Princess Maya, siblings from the Kingdom of Kaldune. I only know who they are by their names since their family's part of the Tri-Kingdom alliance with Enchancia and Wei-Ling. Speaking of which, I have not seen any of the children from the Wei-Ling family. Are they somewhere in the school that I haven't seen or been to? Well, what do I care? It's not like I'm responsible for them anyway.

We all stood apart from each other on the dance floor in a form of a triangle, facing the stage where the musicians are. The castle staffs gasp for a breath of air as they all slouch in their chairs tirelessly. Some of them even collapsed and have fallen and onto the floor from their seats .

"Oh! I guess you're the last three groups." Princess Amber says with an overexerted tone. "Let's give them a brief round of applause."

"A 'Brief' round of applause?" I blinked as everyone in the room starts applauding.

"That's how ." Princess Sofia says in a low tone while softly clapping. "Just go along with it."

"Alright. Congratulations for lasting this long on the dance floor. Now it's time to kick it up a notch as our dearest and most adorable sweethearts take the stage and play their mysterious number. Take it away!" Princess Amber says and waves her arms gracefully as she gestures at the couple on the stage.

"Thank you, Amber." Princess Vivian said. "Shall we start, Desmond?"

"On your cue, Vii." Prince Desmond says.

Princess Vivian stands up from her seat and carefully lowers down her mandolin to her other instruments that were on standby just beside her. She then takes out a small case from the pile and puts it onto her chair, opens the case and takes out its contents. She faces to the front and holds an object in each hand: a violin in her left and a bow in her right.

"I think a few of you may be familiar with this song, so I do hope that you still have enough energy to dance this number." She says with a playful tone and props her chin onto the violin's chin rest, with her bow in her hand on her side.

"That pose means she's ready, but you guys aren't." Prince Desmond says while holding onto his accordion in his chair.

We all quickly got into positions, but Princess Sofia kept on looking to the side, where Prince Zandar and Princess Hildegard were, concerned.

"I hope Hildegard can still hold on. She looks like she's almost at her limit." She says concernedly.

"I'm sure it's going to be fine, Princess." I replied. "It's only down to us three groups."

"And that's an actual problem." She says. "The other group over there are Prince Khalid and Princess Maya, two of the three children from the Kingdom of Kaldune. Khalid is known to be really good in conserving energy, but Maya is the most athletic of all them, even better than all of us whenever we have our gym and dance classes. She's graceful and tough in any and every way, and it will be awhile before the fatigue actually starts to kick in."

But before I could have my say the music starts to play. All of our groups didn't move right away because we were listening to the melody being played, and oddly enough, it was a song very familiar to me.

"It's from-"

"It's the song from from the Hootenanny!"

I was cut off from the Princess's sentence. It seems that we both know the song very well. We both smiled instantaneously and began tapping our feet to the rhythm of the beat, we interlock our arms and hop-and-skipping on the spot in a circle. It was then that I only recalled that she was once a village girl and that this song would be the most familiar to her.

The other two teams were trying to find a way to blend into the song. Prince Zandar and Princess Hildegard were doing a set of steps that only involve "Hop-Skip-Hop-Skip-Turn" steps. I do not recall the name of that set of steps, but they were clever in doing that. It doesn't require as much energy and concentration, but it does tend to get a little boring after awhile and you will lose your momentum and pace. Prince Khalid and Princess Maya were doing a sort of dance that I don't recognize at all, probably the kind of dancing that only exist from their Kingdom. Doesn't require as much energy, but it does seem to take a lot of concentration.

So now I got a basic idea of each of our dances, my brain quickly scrambles to execute two objections at once. I look once more at our surroundings and listened carefully to the timing of the music being played.

"Princess. I've got an idea."

"You do?" She answered me quietly.

"Yes, I can't tell you though or it won't work, so you're going to have to trust me on this one."

"Alright. I have my trust in you, Jaime." She says without a second of hesitation.

"Excellent." I grinned. Foolish silly girl.

The plan is simple: once Princess Maya starts to do her dance steps going left, she would collide into our third twirl, and in that moment all four of us will crash and fall onto the floor. And in all of that mist of confusion, my hands will quickly and swiftly swipe the Amulet off the princess's neck from behind. Then I would make a dash toward one of the opened doors and quickly open the portal to Mystic Meadows so that I could hide myself in my parent's house. It's going to be one delicious plan that I could almost taste it.

As soon as the music got into the chorus I took both of the Princess's hands and started doing a triple twirl towards the Kaldune siblings.

The first twirl executed.

Princess Maya was stepping on her first step to going to her left side with her left foot.

The second twirl was executed.

Princess Maya was stepping on her second step to going to her left side with her right foot.

The third twirl executing.

…

But all chaos broke loose.

Princess Maya was supposed to be on her left foot, but the heel of her shoe got caught onto the hem on the back part of her dress and she starts to trip and fall. I decided to slow down our twirl by setting my feet down hard, but the speed in our twirl was going too fast, not even the friction of the carpet I placed onto the smooth floor earlier helped.

Princess Maya and I had our eyesight locked together in that split moment, not because we were inquiring or glancing at each other, but because we know what could and would happen next if no one could stop us from colliding with each other, and it would result into a horrible accident.

In that spare second of chance, I took out my wand from the inside of my jacket, then pointed my wand towards Princess Maya and conjured out a Magic Bubble. That way she won't crash herself onto the floor. With just moments to spare I quickly took hold of Princess Sofia tightly in my arms.

I felt My back hit the side of the bubble, but with our speeding impact, we were both caused to bounce away and hard from the bubble, sending us literally flying in the opposite direction like a pair of flying logs. I held the Princess tightly in my grasp realizing that my eyelids had already shut themselves. Waiting for that crashing impact felt like an eternity, which realistically should last no more than a couple of seconds. My back then hit the floor, HARD, followed by a few bumps and gradually rolling on the ground. I finally came to a stop after a few rolls, ending myself facing down as I could feel the carpet texture against my forehead and nose. I took in multiple deep breaths as I realized that I had been holding in my breathe while trying to fixate my senses and my mind back into shape.

"...That...That has gone...Terribly wrong..." I said in between between breaths as my eyes struggle to open by blinking and flickering. "...Hah...hah...Are...are you alright...P-Princess Sofi-" I said as I slowly moved my arms to prop myself up on my lower arms.

But the moment my eyes fully opened and got a clearer vision I instantly went numb and regretted ever executing the plan in the first place.

Despite having the thick fake fog on the floor her face was very visible to me. She was looking straight up at me, with an expression that I wasn't familiar with, probably a shock or confused...or worse.

"...J...Jaime..." She blinked once.

…I am going to be in so much trouble.


End file.
